U.S. pays $87,500 to settle with woman denied asylum

Jet, May 16, 2005

The U.S. government has agreed to pay $87,500 to settle a lawsuit brought by a Kenyan refugee who was denied political asylum in the United States.

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, which handled the woman's case, said it is the first time an arriving refugee has received a settlement in a lawsuit that accused the government of negligence.

Rosebell Munyua, 35, claimed the government was negligent because it sent her back to Kenya, even though she said she told immigration officials she feared for her life.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said the settlement filed in a federal court in San Francisco was not an admission of wrongdoing, but declined to comment further.

In 2001 Munyua arrived at the San Francisco airport with her 2-year-old daughter seeking political asylum. Munyua claimed she and her husband were members of an opposition party in Kenya and had been beaten and tortured by Kenyan authorities. Munyua said her husband had gone into hiding in Tanzania.

She said immigration officers interrogated her at the airport and later forced her to board the next plane back to Kenya. Munyua claimed that she had to go into hiding for more than six months, according to court documents.

Soon after, she again escaped Kenya and returned to the United States, this time through Houston, where she was granted asylum in 2002. Munyua sued the U.S. government one year later.

"I wanted to be in a safe country, where my family was," Munyua said. "In Africa, it's a big thing that America is the land of the free."

"It wasn't about the money, it was to say justice was done," said Munyua, who now lives with her extended family and two children in Santa Rosa, CA, and works as a nursing assistant. She plans to become a registered nurse.

Munyua's attorneys called the victory precedent-setting for future immigrants seeking political asylum in the U.S.