A Kenyan woman, Zola Madaga, has shared a gripping personal account of how she reportedly boarded a flight to Ghana despite carrying a passport that immigration officials said could not legally be used to leave the country.
Zola narrated the experience in a selfie-style Facebook video she labelled “Testimony number four,” recounting the chaos that unfolded when she arrived at the airport for a work trip alongside colleagues.
The issue centred on Kenya’s older navy blue passport, which the government had been phasing out to make way for the new light blue East Africa Community travel document.
Had Zola applied for replacement?
Zola said she had already applied for the replacement, but it had not been processed in time for her trip.
She assumed the old passport was still valid, unaware that it had been restricted to domestic use only.
At the check-in counter, an airline official stopped her. “Madam, you cannot travel with this passport,” she was told.
She would need special authorisation to travel internationally with that document.
Zola asks brother to return to the airport
Her brother, who had just dropped her off, had barely reached the exit gate when she rang him in a panic and asked him to turn back.
“Come back, come back, we might be going back home because these people are saying I can’t travel with this passport,” she told him.
One of her work colleagues stayed calm and phoned a contact he knew at the airport’s immigration offices.
Zola’s mum’s assurance to her daughter
The contact asked them to wait. Minutes ticked by with no response to calls or messages, and the boarding window was narrowing fast.
Zola rang her mother, who responded with immediate prayer rather than worry.
“You will travel,” her mother told her. Zola found herself praying alongside her.”God, you of the 11th hour, you of that last-minute miracle, today I need to see you immediately,” she said.
Zola lands at Kotoka International Airport in Accra
Eventually, the immigration contact responded and directed her to a specific counter, where an official stamped her passport and cleared her to board.
She landed at Kotoka International Airport in Accra without any further complications, completed her work assignment, and returned home without incident.
“That is how God came through for me in the 11th hour,” she said, holding up the navy blue passport she has since retired.
