Tale of foreign trader Hu Shiwen with no work permit
Mr Hu Shiwen, a director of Weeroco Ltd in a Nairobi court where he was charged with failing to declare Sh82 million sales to the Kenya Revenue Authority.
What you need to know:
- Even without a permit, Mr Shiwen is a director at Leebeca Enterprises Ltd, whose name he uses for immigration applications.
- Documents show Mr Shiwen used aliases like Li Xiaofei, Jun Wang, Gu Ruo Cao and Peng Guo Dong to operate bank accounts in Kenya.
Mr Shiwen has a case pending in court against another Chinese, Du Fang, with whom he has been fighting over a business deal.
If things had remained on the straight and narrow, Chinese national Hu Shiwen, 76, would be in his country.
His passport was supposedly stamped at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on August 30 to show that he was flying out.
That was after questions were raised on his residence status. Mr Shiwen was to travel on a Lufthansa plane from Nairobi to Nanjing through Frankfurt.
Inexplicably, Mr Hu is still in the country as a businessman.
“The man has no permit and is always in and out of the country,” Immigration Services Director-General Alexander Muteshi told the Sunday Nation.
Even without a permit, Mr Hu is a director at Leebeca Enterprises Ltd, whose name he uses for immigration applications.
The company used to supply Nakumatt Supermarket and other firms with clothes from China.
operate bank accounts
Documents show Mr Hu used aliases like Li Xiaofei, Jun Wang, Gu Ruo Cao and Peng Guo Dong to operate bank accounts in Kenya.
Sources at the department said Mr Hu and a 24-year-old Kenyan were arrested and taken to Nyayo House on August 17. They were later freed.
The circumstances of his release and supposed arrangement that he should leave for China on his own volition remain a mystery as are the departure stamp and air tickets.
A top official in the investigation team is said to be at the centre of attempts to bypass the system. Mr Muteshi told the Sunday Nation that no deportation order has been issued.
He added that the Chinese has instead submitted a complaint “regarding people who have defrauded him of his life savings”.
Mr Hu has a case pending in court against another Chinese, Du Fang, with whom he has been fighting over a business deal.
Work permit
Correspondences seen by the Sunday Nation indicates that he has been working behind-the-scenes to get his immigration file from Section F, which is the directorate’s investigations and prosecution department, in order to process a work permit. Files kept in the section are flagged.
“I am seriously pushing to get your file from Section F so that I can work over it but my hands are tied. Without the file, I cannot do anything. Be patient with us,” Mr Hu is told in a communication with an officer who pledges to work “round the clock to ensure you get your permit”.
From the communication, it also emerges that the same individual helped the Chinese get a visa extension.
