Seven Kenyan nationals who were on transit back into the country are set to save their transportation cost after Zimbabwe resorted to deporting them instead.
Reports by media outlets from the Southern African country on Thursday, June 2, indicated that the seven were nabbed at the Zimbabwean border while crossing over from South Africa.
They were accused of possessing fake Zimbabwean immigration date stamps when they entered the country on Friday, May 27.
They are also accused of forging their documents with the aid of an immigration officer described as corrupt by the state's prosecutor.
They were charged and later convicted of the offence and are still in jail awaiting their deportation to be processed.
The seven were identified as Hussein, Abdille, Abdi, Bullo, Issack and Durow - all returning to Kenya via road transit from South Africa.
The prosecutor in the case, Esnath Vengedza, argued in court that the seven had their fake documents stamped at a fee by the questionable official.
Authorities at the Beitbridge Border Post raised the alarm to the authorities after establishing that the stamp contained on their passports was non-existent in the country.
In her ruling on Monday, May 30, Beitbridge magistrate Annia Chimweta found the seven guilty of flouting the country's immigration laws.
The case comes at a time when there is a surge in interest by Kenyans and foreigners to travel to South Africa from Kenya by road.
The most recent case involves a group of four foreigners based in Kenya who successfully traveled to South Africa in a Tuk Tuk beginning October 2021.
The four, Robbie, Ivo, Jasper and Josh, through sheer determination, completed the 6,000-kilometer distance at the beginning of May 2022.
“We decided to pick the most absurd vehicle for the journey and try to put enough work into it to convert it to a safari-capable machine,” they stated at the time.
Despite the thrill of such a long trip, experts in international travel advise proper research before taking such long journeys where there are multiple travel requirements across various jurisdictions.
