A Canadian man deported from Kenya while working for an opposition party spoke with CTV News Channel on Monday about the country’s carefully watched election and his recent, harrowing ordeal.
“We were in our apartments and a bunch of guys who said they were police just basically showed up and… took us to the airport and eventually sent us home,” Andreas Katsouris said via telephone from the Netherlands. “I was definitely afraid.”
Katsouris, a senior vice president with Washington, D.C.-based political consulting firm Aristotle, Inc., had been working with the east African nation’s main opposition party for roughly two months.
“We were working with a large group providing some counsel and guidance on how the campaign could get its message out most effectively and win votes,” the Toronto-native explained. “Just sort of bread-and-butter political communications.”
Katsouris, along with Aristotle’s American CEO, John Aristotle Phillips, was detained Friday and deported the following day.
“Part of the context was that there had been some violence in Kenya in elections in the past, but in particular there had been a fairly sensational, terrible murder the week before of a senior Kenyan election official,” Katsouris said, explaining his long day of uncertainty and fear. “I certainly was worried that something quite serious might happen to me.”
Kenya’s election, which is scheduled for Tuesday, is being carefully watched by the international community.
“Kenya has never had an election in which an incumbent has lost and stepped down,” Katsouris said.
Katsouris is still unsure why he and his boss were targeted.
“No one person is essential to something as complicated as an election or a political campaign… but that makes the decision to remove us in such a public way pretty puzzling,” Katsouris said.
“I can’t myself think of a good reason why the Kenyan government would do that unless they’re concerned that scrutiny of the election, and especially some advice to the opposition on how to handle that, is detrimental to them. And that’s a real shame… Kenyans deserve a democratic election. Hopefully this is just a strange incident and tomorrow’s election will be a good one.”
With files from The Canadian Press
