John Mulua has called Canada home for nearly a decade.
Since arriving eight years ago, Mulwa has been a pillar of the Kenyan community in Hamilton, Ontario. – he has served as head chef for the Mohawk Student Association at Mohawk College, organizes an annual barbecue for the city’s Kenyan diaspora using vegetables he grows in his garden, and runs a catering business that provides food to Hamilton’s underprivileged communities.
Yet Mulua has little more than two weeks left in the city he has called home since 2014 – on January 28 he will be deported back to Kenya, a country he fled because he felt his life is in danger.
“I just want to stay here. I just want to work. I just wanted to support my community,” Mulwa said in an interview with CTV News Toronto. “The people [of Hamilton] mean a lot to me.”
Without his community and uprooted from the place he now calls home, Mulua fears what awaits him back in Kenya.
“I’m only strong when I’m here,” he said. “If I go home now, [..] I will be killed.”
Mulua says that while he was initially granted protected person refugee status in 2014, it was later denied after a hearing. Since then, he has appealed the decision four times, he says, but has been repeatedly denied.
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, the federal Department of Immigration said it could not comment on individual cases due to privacy laws, but that all eligible asylum seekers receive an “independent and fair assessment” of the merits of their claim.
“Any person facing removal is entitled to due process, but once all avenues of appeal have been exhausted, they are removed from Canada in accordance with Canadian law.”
“RUN FOR MY LIFE”
Mulwa’s initial decision to leave Kenya was not easy, he says.
Land conflicts between local tribes have driven him from town to town – “running for his life” – because he says he feels insecure.
“I lost my house – it was burnt down – I lost my family and that made me run because there were people [being] killed,” Mulua said.
Mulua was working as a traveling chef for Celebrity Cruises at the time, and while he returned home every few months, the conflicts made him decide not to return.
“So I decided to seek asylum here, I came to Canada through Vancouver,” he explained.
Despite arriving in British Columbia, Mulua says he heard Ontario boasted a large Kenyan community and when he landed in Toronto, he was recommended to go to Hamilton.
The transition was not easy at first. Mulwa is initially living in a shelter while he waits to be connected to legal aid and to file a claim for protected person refugee status.
“I just went through so much while I was here without any communication with the family,” he said. “It was a disaster, but then I decided to reach out to people [..] That’s why I was so involved with the community and the people around me – not only [the] An African community – but other communities, like my church.”
Mulwa’s impact on his community during his years in Hamilton has not gone unnoticed, as a petition has been made on Change.org for him to stay here.
“To remove him from Canada would deprive this country of one of its most productive and conscientious members,” the petition says. “Please support this good man.”
WHAT NEXT?
Mario Bellissimo LL.BCS, an immigration lawyer and founder of Bellissimo Law Group PC, told CTV News Toronto that applying for permanent residence in Canada through the humanitarian and compassionate stream will look at Mulwa’s case with a more holistic approach.
“It doesn’t look at the risk factors, it looks at the difficulties if you come back,” he said. “Are there any children who are directly affected by this decision to remove you? How is your establishment? Did you do well with financial management?’
Mulwa says he has applied for mercy, has received confirmation of the application and is waiting to hear back.
“But we can’t build on that,” he says.
Bellissimo says that if the CBSA tells Mulwa it is not stopping his removal, Mulwa may have one last legal option – to take the matter to federal court and try to get an order to stop the removal, although that would only temporary solution.
Asked what’s next, Mulwa said he wasn’t sure.
“What will happen next? Now maybe the government will listen and say, “Maybe this guy [deserves] another chance because people seem to like it maybe. And actually, when we did my humanitarian aid, they sent me confirmation that they received, we’ll wait for the decision, but we can’t base it on that.”
Meanwhile, Mulua says staying in Canada would mean “life.”
“It’s like driving your car and knowing that in the next 20 minutes your car is going to kill you. You’re not going to drive that car,” he said.
“This is the same [..] I’m not saying Kenya is the problem. The problem is the people there waiting for me.”
Mulua says he already has a plane ticket for January 28 to leave at 10am
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