Disabled Kenyan man gets reprieve

Geoff Adams-Spink
BBC News website age & disability correspondent

Disability rights campaigner Peter Gichura faces deportation

The Home Office is being urged to reverse a decision to deport a Kenyan disability rights campaigner.

Peter Gichura - a wheelchair user - is being held at a detention centre, but was not deported as expected on Thursday evening.

His lawyer applied to delay proceedings while a fresh application for asylum was considered.

Campaigners say Mr Gichura is in poor health, needs proper medication and is being held in unsuitable conditions.

The Home Office has refused to comment on Mr Gichura's case, but says the Harmondsworth detention centre - in which he is being held - is wheelchair accessible.

Representations have been made to Home Office ministers by the disability charity, Leonard Cheshire, and Mr Gichura's MP, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks.

Mr Gichura is said to have a kidney infection for which - according to campaigners - he has yet to receive appropriate medication.

'Feverish illness'

"You have a man with a feverish illness, who has a pre-existing impairment, in an inaccessible environment," said Leonard Cheshire's Jon Knight.

"Leonard Cheshire considers this to be inhumane."

The Home Office, in a statement, said that due care and attention was always given to the health and welfare of anyone in detention.

And it says that Harmondsworth is suitable for wheelchair users.

"Detainees who use a wheelchair are able to access all levels of Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre," the statement said.

"The dining hall, association rooms and the courtyard at Harmondsworth are all accessible from the ground floor, and a detainee who uses a wheelchair will be provided a room on the ground floor."

Mr Gichura became disabled in 1990 after falling from a tree while trying to escape from the police following a political demonstration.

He injured his spine and - according to campaigners - lost the use of his legs because he did not receive prompt medical attention.

He then began to support himself as a street hawker, and formed a disability rights organisation of which he became chairman.

Mr Gichura says that because of his political activism, he was frequently arrested and beaten.

He said he also received a death threat from a senior government official.

Discrepancies

Along with fellow campaigners, Mr Gichura says he was forced to leave Kenya because of the violence and intimidation.

He arrived in London in June 2001.

Campaigners say that his original application for asylum was made at a time when he was in pain, exhausted and lacking legal representation.

This, they say, accounts for some discrepancies on which the Home Office later relied in order to dismiss his application and subsequent appeals.

Mr Gichura has submitted a new application for asylum, based on the lack of access to the healthcare in Kenya that he needs to survive.

His lawyer hopes that Mr Gichura's impending deportation can be halted while this new claim is given consideration.