Toronto woman detained in Kenya cleared by court to return to Canada.

(Toronto,  August 14,  2009 Ceegaag Online)

A Toronto woman stranded in Kenya for nearly three months was on her way to the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi to pick up emergency travel papers, her Toronto lawyer said Friday morning.

Suaad Haji Mohamud was expected to leave Kenya Friday night after charges of using a passport issued to another person and being unlawfully present in the country were dropped by Kenyan authorities.

"I'm coming home," Mohamud said Friday morning from Nairobi.

The 31-year old mother has been stranded in Kenya since she was stopped May 21 at the airport in Nairobi by a Kenyan immigration official who told her she did not look like the woman pictured in the four-year-old photograph in the passport she was carrying.

The Canadian High Commission sided with the official, saying it carried out "conclusive investigations" and confirmed the woman was an "impostor."

Canadian officials asked Kenyan authorities to drop the charges against Mohamud this week after a DNA test recently confirmed Mohamud is who she claimed to be.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty slammed the federal government for its handling of the case saying there was "no excuse" for the way Mohamud was treated.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his government's actions saying officials were working to get Mohamud home.

If all goes according to plan, Mohamud should be back in Toronto by Saturday afternoon.

Canada.com

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