A Kenyan woman who was hopeful of joining Harvard University is on the verge of losing her golden opportunity after she was denied the coveted U.S student visa at the U.S Embassy in Nairobi.
The Kenyan woman who identified herself as Repha Uhuru told the CBS News that she was set to start her classes at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education this August.
She went for her visa interview at the U. S Embassy in Nairobi on July 28, 2025. During the visa interview, Repha said that she was asked about her marital status and the state of her finances.
“I said, ‘I’m not married, I’m a widow.’ So, the next thing I heard was ‘Unfortunately, you are not qualified for the visa this time around,” she told the CBS News.
READ MORE: How I answered US Student visa interview questions at Nairobi Embassy; got approved
Repha says that the visa officer gave her the pink-coloured rejection slip that stated that she did not show enough ties to her home country. This was despite stating that she had a son and family living in Kenya, she said.
“So, maybe according to them, I was not going to come back to Kenya,” she told the CBS News.
Hoping the refusal can be reversed, Repha has now booked another interview for August 12.
Repha’s visa denial comes at a time when the United States’ Department of State is instituting strict visa eligibility requirements.
Among the new requirements the department has set mandates visa applicants to declare all the social media accounts they have been operating over the past five years.
According to the new rules, failure to disclose the accounts and, or disclosing accounts fhat are not active or accounts that are not public can be interpreted as a concealing social media activities that can make an applicant ineligible for a visa.
