In October 2016, the Dutch Government Education Service DUO declared his Bachelor of Arts ‘invalid’ in a legalisation procedure.

As RxAxLxF works a lot outside The Netherlands, most countries demand at least the possession of a Bachelor degree for a work permit to be granted. Also this Bachelor legalisation procedure was about the application for a work permit in another country.
The verbal explanation of the government officials was that there was a ‘wrong date on his Bachelor certificate’, which rendered the whole Bachelor invalid. DUO offered that they could hand him a statement which would state that he studied Art for four years. Though without mentioning that he graduated in his studies, therefore rendering the ‘statement’ absolutely worthless.

Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO)

RxAxLxF found out that his name was registered in the Dutch Education Service database as being a Bachelor of Arts graduate. Based on this fact, RxAxLxF asked DUO for a replacement of his Bachelor certificate, on which DUO claimed that ‘the database is only of secondary value and it is practice in The Netherlands that a once invalidated or lost Bachelor certificate cannot be replaced.’
After a lot of protest by RxAxLxF, in which he threatened to sue the Dutch government with massive claims, DUO declared his Bachelor valid again a couple of months later. Despite RxAxLxF asking for a written statement by the Dutch government about the affair, none was given. Also no explanation why the date on his Bachelor certificate was suddenly rendered ‘valid’ again. Though he recorded some telephone conversations with government officials as evidence that the affair happened for real.

As much as this case was not a censorship case in regards to a certain artwork, if this attempt to damage his professional status would have been successful, it would have had many very negative consequences for him.

As much as this sounds like a surrealistic happening, Dutch government officials had actually on previous occasions expressed their concern that RxAxLxF’s work in Kenya ‘might damage the good trade relations between Kenya & The Netherlands’. They were pointing in particular to the Election Observer case of 2013 in which RxAxLxF discovered evidence for election fraud in Kenya & his support to the City Cotton community who are battling with former Kenyan president Moi and the Government of Kenya to get their grabbed lands back. The Dutch Government seems to be a bit worried that RxAxLxF’s work might lead to retributions by the Kenyan Government to Dutch businesses in Kenya at some stage.
In return, RxAxLxF requested to those Dutch Government officials to have these concerns given to him in writing. So far, he has not received any official request by the Dutch Government to stop with his work in Kenya.