This archive report was first published on 7 October 2019.
On September 25, 2019, I, Senator Isaac Mwaura, was attending a Kenyan side event at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. As I rushed to take my seat, I was stopped by Secret Service agents who asked for my ID and questioned me about a person who fit my description, allegedly carrying a screwdriver.
Feeling profiled and discriminated against due to my albinism and race, I wondered aloud if this was happening at the UN headquarters, the home of universal human rights. The agents refused to let me go, and a black colleague, Eric Bramwell, a lieutenant officer in charge of the investigative unit, intervened to calm the situation.
Eric took me to his office and later to the General Assembly hall, where I was pulled aside again by Eric and Kevin O Hanlon, the head of security at the UN complex, who apologized for the incident. However, the harassment continued, with secret service agents questioning me and taking my photos without my consent.
As I tried to access my hotel, I was stopped again, and a State House official had to intervene to explain my identity. I later learned that I was not the only one experiencing this treatment, as Dr. Omotayo, an ambassador with albinism, had also been stopped multiple times.
My experience highlights the systemic discrimination within American and other bureaucracies that act as barriers to the inclusion of persons with albinism.
