A Kenyan asylum seeker who fled the country over an extramarital affair has been granted the right to remain in the United Kingdom (UK).
This comes following a ruling by an upper immigration tribunal, which found that a previous decision dismissing her claim was flawed and riddled with errors.
According to The Telegraph, the woman whose identity has been protected fled Kenya in 2018 after her family discovered her romantic involvement with another woman.
She sought asylum in the UK over fear of threats to her life from her husband and possible state persecution.
Her claim was initially rejected by a lower tribunal, which concluded she would not face harm if returned to Kenya.
However, the recent appeal overturned that finding, with the upper tribunal noting multiple inaccuracies and poor handling of evidence in the original ruling.
Judge David Pickup, who presided over the appeal, remarked that the lower tribunal’s judgment contained numerous typographical mistakes, misrepresentations of facts, and a lack of proper consideration of the evidence.
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The judge concluded that the decision lacked the required “anxious scrutiny” and that allowing it to stand would be unfair.
The woman had claimed that intimate images of her and her partner were discovered and leaked by phone repair technicians, triggering a wave of backlash.
Her family, including her husband, reportedly became involved in a plan to attack her partner, prompting her to flee.
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The upper tribunal highlighted a critical mistake in the initial decision, where it incorrectly stated she was “entitled to humanitarian protection” instead of “not entitled.”
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Judge Pickup emphasised that the ruling appeared hastily written and said such errors undermined confidence in the process.
Lawyers representing the Kenyan asylum seeker argued that the lower tribunal failed to offer sound reasoning for its conclusions and had misinterpreted aspects of her case—such as the assumption that her relationship had been successfully hidden from her family for five years, which her legal team disputed.
The Home Office acknowledged flaws in the initial judgment but argued that the lower-tier judge had met the basic requirements.
Judge Pickup ruled that the cumulative errors warranted a fresh hearing of the case.
While the typographical mistakes alone did not determine the outcome, Judge Pickup noted they contributed to a broader impression that the case had not been properly considered.
As a result, the asylum seeker will now have her case reconsidered in full.
The ruling comes a day after the UK permanently shut down its care worker visas and announced multiple immigration rules targeting foreign labour, including Kenyans.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, May 12, announced that the UK would “take back control” of its borders by ending what he termed as “Britain’s open borders experiment”.
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