Sucaad Xaaji Max'uud

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Read this on the paper the other day. On the newspaper, qofta sawiradeeda driver licence, healthcardka and citizenshipka ku dhaganaa. In a way isku muuqaal jiro uma eko.

 

Probably leenka walaasheed ama qaraabo kale soo siisay baasaboorka ku qarxay u maleynaa, and now the real "Sucaad" dacwoonoyso. Probably. It is sad, though.

 

Is woman held in Kenya who she says she is?

 

 

If a passport, driver's licence, OHIP card and citizenship certificate are not enough, Suaad Hagi Mohamud is ready to give fingerprints to prove who she is.

 

The Toronto woman jailed in Kenya after being told she no longer looks like her four-year-old passport photo says proving her identity is easy.

 

"When I applied for Canadian citizenship, they took my fingerprints," the Somali-born woman said yesterday by phone from Nairobi, where she is out on bail pending trial.

 

"They can match them."

 

She has already tried to prove her identity using all her other photo ID, plus credit and bank cards as well as a Humber River Regional Hospital user card.

 

Her ex-husband, 12-year-old son, dozens of neighbours and her local MP – former immigration minister Joe Volpe – have all vouched for her in Toronto.

 

But the Canadian government does not believe her.

 

Last week, Ottawa issued a single terse sentence: "Following an extensive investigation, officials at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi have determined that the individual arrested by Kenyan authorities is not Ms. Suaad Mohamud Hagi."

 

For reasons stubbornly not explained, a doubt raised by a Kenyan airport official as the woman prepared to fly home after a visit has somehow escalated into Canada's rejection of her identity.

 

Canadian officials have refused to answer questions central to the mystery: Is the real Suaad Mohamud missing? Who is the arrested woman? Why does Canada disbelieve her story? Why can't fingerprints be taken?

 

In the sole departure from the official line, Canadian High Commission first secretary Liliane Khadour last night requested a meeting tomorrow, Mohamud phoned yesterday to report, though the purpose of the meeting was not explained.

 

The stranded woman was preparing to leave Kenya on May 17 after a two-week visit with her mother.

 

Airport officials stopped her, jailed her and after eight days released her when a friend posted $2,500 (U.S.) bail.

 

African-born travellers commonly offer airport officials money to avoid hassles, a practice that might explain her problems, Mohamud said in one of several phone interviews this week.

 

"I am Canadian and I refused."

 

But Nairobi police also stop people on the street to inspect identification papers, expecting a bribe, she said.

 

"Since I got out of jail, I have been stopped seven times and I have paid every time."

 

Frustration among Toronto Somali immigrants over the case is mounting, said Kawnayn Hussein, host of the popular Somali-language weekly radio show Midnimo (Unity) on AM530.

 

"I told my listeners, `This could happen to you.'"

 

Toronto friends recognize the phone voice from Nairobi as genuine and fear either jail in Kenya or deportation to Somalia, said Shukri Abdi, a neighbour who agreed to look after Mohamud's son for two weeks and is still caring for him after nine weeks.

 

"I can bring together 50 people to identify her," Abdi said. "She is outgoing. She has a job (at an ATS courier warehouse). Everybody knows her."

 

Kenyan high commission officials in Ottawa did not return repeated calls over two days.

 

Toronto Star

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

This is strange.

[The Zack]

The Toronto woman jailed in Kenya after being told she no longer looks like her four-year-old passport photo says proving her identity is easy.

She should tell them she has been going to the gym and lost much weight.

[Tuujiye]

This is Sad and is another case of lack of Unity in Somali community in Canada.. We are busy opening up another Somali community centre to help our tribes only, but what we don't understand is how useless and pathetic we are as a community when we do such thing. The Canadian Government will only take us serious when we unite and act as one. As long as we are acting as if we are still back in Somalia and using the separatism ideology that we brought with us, we will never unite and as long as we are like this way, our passports or papers are useless because we are still qaxooti with out a home and why would this government take back a qaxooti. We are always the ones who are shooting our selves on the foot is really sad. We can’t hold blame this the government we brought it to our selves.

 

Wareer Badanaa!!!

[Som@li]

Give the girl a help instead of making a fun of her, half the people here are from Canada, wax matarayaal miyaa

[-Lily-]

I have been getting stopped a lot recently at airports because my passport pic no longer looks like me,and everytime I have to tell them that was 7 years ago, before I discovered healthy eating, eye brow plucking and lipstick. A person can change a lot in a few years.

 

I hope it all works out for her, sounds scary!

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Relief after woman stranded in Nairobi fingerprinted

 

 

A Toronto woman facing jail in Kenya says she feels relieved after Canadian officials finally took her fingerprints to help settle her identity.

 

"I feel a lot better," Suaad Hagi Mohamud said yesterday by phone from Nairobi, where she has been stranded for seven weeks, eight days of that time in jail. "I really want to come back home."

 

Canadian consular officials, who for six weeks refused to have anything to do with the woman, took her prints and asked her such questions as where she lives, who her boss is at the ATS courier plant in Etobicoke and who is looking after her 12-year-old son in Toronto.

 

But they did not indicate when they might match her prints with those on her original Somali refugee application made 10 years ago.

 

"They said they would get back to me," she said.

 

Mohamud, 31, was about to leave Kenya on May 17 after a short visit when airport officials stopped her for not looking like her Canadian passport photo – a common ruse for soliciting a bribe, she says.

 

The Kenyans jailed her. She was released eight days later on $2,500 (U.S.) bail, pending trial.

 

On May 21, the Kenyans notified the Canadian high commission of the arrest.

 

A week later, a Canadian consular official wrote Kenyan immigration to say "conclusive investigations" confirm the arrested woman was an imposter. The official sent them the voided passport to help with their prosecution.

 

For weeks, Mohamud – or the woman posing as Mohamud – begged the Canadians to take her fingerprints but they refused to return her calls.

 

"That's all we're asking," family spokesperson and Toronto radio host Kawnayn Hussein said on hearing the prints had been taken.

 

"It's somehow encouraging for us," said Mohamed Dalmar of Ottawa's Catholic Settlement Centre, who has worked for three years on a similar case.

 

Koronto Star

[Ashkiro]

Glad to hear she is out, I hope she takes legal action against both governments for damages.

[Jacaylbaro]

I hope she will get $$$$$$ for this ,,,

[N.O.R.F]

The pics on the driver's license and health card look nothing like her!

[Valenteenah.]

Hmmm..I can see how they might doubt her identity, although the first ID Photo clearly looks like her.

 

I look like an alien in my passport photo. But no one has cottoned-on yet.

[Kool_Kat]

Xashac!!! Mala ogaaday when exactly she pleaded with the officials to take her finger prints? Was it when she was jailed the first time or after she was released?

 

As MMA said she probably gave her passport to someone else, wuuna ku qarxay and after qofkaas lasoo daayay the real Sucaad baa isasoo xaadirisay...Sheekoo yinkaan waala yaqaanaa...

 

 

"Since I got out of jail, I have been stopped seven times and I have paid every time."

Sheekoy kunacay!

[Paragon]

It's her. The Kenyans and probably the Canadians in the airports are diots.

 

It's her.

[Cabdow]

This woman was clearly accused wrongfully and she should take legal action against both governments. One is known for bribery and the other for not caring their citizen's unless they were white...This is uncceptable!

 

Just because she is wearing hijab on some of the documents don't mean it's not her.

 

It looks like her, it must be her!

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Waxyaabo badan aanan ogeyn ayaa jiro. It is not madoow and caddaan, or as it seems.

 

Teeda kale Kanada right-wing regime ayaa powerka heysto. They don't give a rat's **** about hyphenated 'Canadian.' I am glad, though, they are a minority government.