No proof woman stranded in Kenya is Canadian: Cannon

CBC News

The federal government has found no proof that a woman stranded in Kenya because she didn't look like the photo on her Canadian passport is actually a Canadian citizen, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Friday.

Canadian officials in Kenya confiscated the passport of Suaad Haji Mohamud and concluded she was an impostor. (CBC)Suaad Haji Mohamud has been detained in Nairobi for more than two months and is waiting for Canada to acknowledge her citizenship so she can return to her 12-year-old son in Toronto.

"The individual has to be straightforward, has to let us know whether or not she is a Canadian citizen," Cannon told reporters in Ottawa.

"She's saying so, but there is no tangible proof to the effect. All Canadians who hold passports generally have a picture that is identical in their passport to what they claim to be."

At the request of Canadian officials, her trial in Kenya for identity fraud was postponed on Friday to give Mohamud more time to confirm her identity through DNA tests, which will be performed on Monday.

DNA will be collected from Mohamud, her ex-husband and their son in Toronto.

Passport voided

A photocopy of Suaad Haji Mohamud's passport photo as seen on CBC television. (CBC)Speaking from her hotel room in Nairobi, the Somali-born Mohamud said she felt some relief Canada had asked the courts to give her more time.

"They will find out exactly who I am," she said. "I don't know why I deserve this."

Mohamud, 31, spent a month visiting her mother in Kenya and was on her way back to Canada when an officer stopped her at Nairobi airport May 21 saying she did not look like her four-year-old passport photo.

In contention, was the size of her lips.

After spending eight days in jail, she was released on bail with no travel documents.

Canadian consular officials said she is an "impostor," voided her passport and sent it to Kenyan authorities for prosecution.

The High Commission of Canada in Nairobi sent a letter to Kenyan officials on May 28 that stated, "Please be advised that we have carried out conclusive investigations, including an interview, and have confirmed that the person brought to the Canadian High Commission on suspicion of being an impostor is not the rightful holder of the aforementioned Canadian passport."

Mohamud said she has lost a lot of weight in the four years since the passport photo was taken.

She showed the Kenyans other pieces of Canadian identification and offered to be fingerprinted, but she was charged with identity fraud. She spent eight days in jail before she was released on bail.

Mohamud said she provided fingerprints when she applied for Canadian citizenship, but Canadian officials say fingerprints are destroyed when such an application is closed.

Dozens of her neighbours in Toronto have vouched for her.

With files from The Canadian Press