Spend.thrift, kindly note that this incident did not only involve Ngugi Wa-Thongo but all Kenyan aboard that particular flight.Its only that Prof.Ngugi unlike others involved choose to highlight it.
There can not be a good reason in discrimination based on some one else's colour or nationality. Am not aware of any Kenyan Government or Dutch Government policy that allows KQ to photocopy our passports, otherwise it wouild appear on the Ministry of immagration website or as you rightly put it,by the time you are give a visa they already have your data anyway.
Repeat KQ does racial profilling of its African passengers, its codeshare partner KLM does not do it. KQ operates during the day while KlM operates at night on the same route.