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New Zealand’s Immigration and Protection Tribunal upheld the refusal of residence to a Kenyan man facing a murder charge, according to an RNZ report published on 2 October 2026. The tribunal did not decide the criminal case: at the time of the report, he had not been convicted and his trial had not taken place.
What the tribunal decided
The tribunal upheld Immigration New Zealand’s decision to decline the man’s residence application. The application was made under a 2022 visa category described in the report as having “settled, skilled or scarce” criteria; his dairy-farm work was presented under the scarce criterion.
Immigration New Zealand decided that the man had deliberately failed to disclose the charge. He disputed that he had intended to withhold the information and argued that the agency had wrongly inferred guilt or treated a charge as a conviction. The tribunal rejected his arguments, RNZ reported.
RNZ quoted the tribunal as saying: “Immigration New Zealand is not obliged to continually defer an application, or necessarily await the outcome of a decision on such matters”. The agency reportedly deferred its decision three times, including one deferral lasting 36 days.
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Why the murder charge remained unresolved
The man, then 58, returned to Kenya in January 2023 after his mother died. Eleven days later, another relative died amid family conflict described in the report. He and a brother were later charged. The Kenyan High Commission subsequently told Immigration New Zealand about the charge and that a Kenyan court had ordered the man not to leave Kenya without permission.
The criminal proceedings were separate from the residence appeal. At the time covered by RNZ’s report, the man had not been convicted and his trial had not taken place. The tribunal’s decision concerned whether to uphold the immigration refusal, not whether he committed murder.
What the tribunal considered
RNZ reported that the tribunal acknowledged the man had worked in New Zealand for approximately 12 years during the previous 19 years and had positive employer references. It also considered that his wife and two children, who were included in the application, had not travelled to New Zealand and remained in Kenya. He had lived there for three and a half years, and the charge was still outstanding.
The tribunal was quoted as saying: “While he has not been convicted, and the evidence suggests that he is otherwise of good character, this outstanding charge makes it inappropriate that the tribunal recommend an exception to instructions be considered”. This is RNZ’s quotation of the tribunal’s reasoning, not a direct quotation verified against the tribunal’s decision text.
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Family hardship described in the appeal
The applicant described mental-health effects on himself and one child after the family death. The family also reported financial hardship, including overdue school fees and a risk that the older child would have to give up a university degree. These were reported submissions about the family’s circumstances, rather than independently established findings about their current situation.
RNZ reported that the tribunal upheld the decline despite those circumstances and the man’s work history and references. The report’s account does not establish what later happened in the Kenyan criminal case or whether there have been subsequent immigration developments.
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This account is based on Gill Bonnett’s RNZ report, published through 1News on 2 October 2026: “Long-term migrant’s residency appeal fails while awaiting murder trial.” The tribunal’s primary decision was not available in the reporting used here, so procedural and legal points are attributed to RNZ’s account rather than presented as independently verified legal guidance.
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