Compassionate Appeal to Canadian High Commission in Kenya

The African community in Manitoba is on the verge of losing an international student who has been at the ICU since January 19th, 2022.

With the best machines at the hospital and surrounded by caring and compassionate medical personnel, this 25-year-old international student’s slim hope of survival is the presence of a family member.

Unfortunately, the Canadian Embassy in Kenya has refused the mother of this student visa twice.

The hospital has written letters twice to the embassy, supported by a letter from an Honourable Member of the Parliament. The Kenyan High Commission in Canada has also written a supporting letter.

I totally understand that issuing a Canadian visa to an applicant is a privilege and not a right. I am appealing to the Canadian Embassy in Kenya to accord this student and his widowed mother this privilege. This woman urgently needs to be by her son at this critical moment.

The personal doctor to the patient, a compassionate father, is worried that if nothing is done quickly, they might lose the student.

He forwarded a third letter to us today February 17 which reads in part “….is critically ill on the most amount of life support we can provide. This includes a lung by-pass machine and many other modalities of life-sustaining therapy. His condition is deteriorating rapidly, and I implore someone to grant his mother passage to Canada to be with her son. He currently has no family in Winnipeg, Manitoba”.

The doctor has provided his personal home, mobile number, and email address for anyone who cares to talk to him about his patient. Right now, they are at the edge of the cliff and have done everything within their professional and humane ability to help this student hang on still.

The doctor went on to say that “Time is of extreme importance, and I would once again you make a swift decision”.

The medical personnel are somewhat optimistic that there is a slim hope of survival if only a family member can be around him to provide some emotional and psychological support.

The embassy should also consider the number of resources and attention the hospital and the province are dedicating to save the life of this student, and not allow these efforts to be wasted.

It is very critical that the mother see his son alive before anything else.