By Wanja Waweru
With only a few days left, John Mulwa, a Kenya chef living in the Diaspora, was just about to be deported in January this year but thr Canadian government extended his visa for an additional 18 months.
Mulwa claimed to have received a call from Hamilton Centre’s Matthew Green, his local member of parliament, five days prior to the scheduled deportation.
“He said, ‘John, I have some good news.’ I stopped, I told everyone to be quiet, and I put him on speaker,” Mulwa told CTV News Toronto in February. “Everyone was so excited […] There has been so much celebration, which is good news – 18 months is good news.”
“It’s not every day that you get to celebrate a win like this, for a person like John. The Ministry of Immigration has been completely overwhelmed and backlogged on files just like this,” Green told CTV News Toronto, adding that Mulwa’s temporary extension, for further consideration of his request to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, is a community win.
“And certainly for every story like John, there are unfortunately many others that aren’t successful, so we’re really happy to be able to celebrate this one with the community.”
Even though Mulwa says he is “relieved” to be in the country for the next little while, he cannot help but look ahead to what will happen after.
