Father of 3 says he is self-deporting to Kenya after 16 years in the US

LANSING, Mich. (WILX/Gray News) – A man from Kenya said he would rather leave the United States on his own terms than potentially being forced out.

Samuel Kangethe said he is planning to self-deport back to his home country in a decision that is weighing heavily on his family.

Until May of this year, Kangethe had been working as an accountant for the state of Michigan.

He said his decision was made knowing the surge of immigration crackdowns across the U.S. could come for him next.

“I’m not trying to run from my responsibility,” he said. “This is actually me taking accountability.”

Kangethe first arrived in the Lansing, Michigan area on a student visa in 2009, attending Lansing Community College and Northwood University.

A few years later, he was married and granted conditional residency. However, immigration officials claimed the marriage was fraudulent, leading to a court case that has never been resolved.

“A person like me with a case in the court, I check all the boxes of people they will start with,” Kangethe said.

Since then, he has gotten divorced, remarried and is now a father of three children who are 13, 11 and 5 years old. He said he will be leaving them behind along with his wife of seven years.

“I talk to people, they say, ‘Oh, all you need to do is lay low,’” he said. “I’m like, ‘What do you mean lay low?’ Does lay low mean that I can’t take my kids to their game? Does that mean I can’t go to the orchestra concert? Does that mean I can’t take them to their first day of school like I have for the rest of their lives?”

Kangethe said he cannot afford to live in fear for the sake of his family.

“How can a father protect his family and provide for his family, when he himself is in hiding?” he said.

Kangethe said his decision to self deport is in the hopes that his family would be prevented from experiencing unnecessary trauma. He said that does not make it any less painful.

“He’s going to be missing everyone here. We’re going to be missing him, and then we’re going to have to figure out the financial aspect of, ‘OK, we’re missing him, let’s come up with five, $6,000 to fly to Kenya,’” his wife, Latavia, said.

Along with financial strain, communication will be more difficult with a seven- to eight-hour time difference, depending on the time of year.

Kangethe is going back to Kenya willingly as an act of good faith, but he said he is not going quietly, instead choosing to share his family’s story to send the message that immigrants are just like any other person.

“I know people come here illegally and they do things,” Latavia Kangethe said. “But that wasn’t the case for him. He’s done probably far more than what many Americans born and raised here have done.”

Samuel Kangethe said the court case surrounding his first marriage was pushed back during the COVID-19 pandemic and was dropped from the court docket in 2023. A judge never ruled in the case.