Stop the deportation of Peter Gichura

Disability rights activist Peter Gichura, who has lived in Croydon, UK since 2001, has received a Removal Order from the Home Office, which will force him to return to Kenya and leave the life he has built in the UK.

Despite the difficulties Peter has faced as an asylum seeker, he has spent his time positively, successfully completing NVQ level 4 in accounting and doing voluntary work and activities with Payday men’s network, WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities), Leonard Cheshire Disability, Westminster Action Network on Disability, and his local church. Peter is an active and well-respected member of his local community, with many friends and networks in the UK.

Peter was instrumental in establishing a disabled persons’ organisation in Kenya, advocating for the rights of disabled street sellers. He fled in 2001 to escape anti-Kikuyu persecution against disability activists.

Whilst in the UK, Peter has made good use of his skills, by being involved in campaigns to improve access to public services for disabled people, including London buses.

Peter has made a significant contribution to the disabled people’s movement in the UK. As an asylum seeker, he was detained in Harmondsworth in 2006, without accessible washing and toilet facilities, not given the correct medication, and subjected to painful body searches. With the support of WinVisible and Payday, Peter challenged the Home Office and Kalyx, the company that runs Harmondsworth detention centre, using the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

In May 2008 the Court of Appeal made a precedent ruling on his DDA case -- that all disabled people in custody before December 2006 do have the protection of anti-discrimination legislation.

During the plane journey to the UK in 2001 Peter was manhandled, causing his spinal injury to worsen. He has gone from using crutches to using a wheelchair, and relies on medical treatment without which he would die. In 2006, he applied for asylum on that basis: "As someone with spinal injury I am vulnerable to chronic kidney infection and need sanitary living conditions to survive – but there is no running water where I am from in Nyahururu, Kenya. I cannot afford medical treatment – and there is no free healthcare." Expert evidence confirmed this but was ignored, and Peter’s claim was turned down.

Removal now would put Mr Gichura’s health and life at serious and immediate risk.

Above all, Peter has built his life in the UK, has contributed to society through his active commitment to voluntary and community groups. Peter has the skills and experience that will help him to build a career, he has a job offer, and will thus be able to support himself financially if he is given leave to remain in the UK.