Miguna Miguna spends night at JKIA in Nairobi
What you need to know:
So violent were the scenes that the pilot of the plane took time to listen to the hostile passenger police had bundled into his craft.
“I’m a Kenyan citizen by birth,” he told the attentive pilot, whose name the Nation could not immediately establish.
“These court orders say I must be in this country,” he went on as he brandished High Court orders that directed his return to Kenya after he was violently deported to Canada.
Fiery lawyer and self-declared National Resistance Movement general Miguna Miguna on Monday spent the night in the cold at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.
This was after he flatly rejected government’s attempts to re-deport him to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a country in which he said he was not born and has no relatives or business associates.
DRAMA
The government rejected Dr Miguna’s return to Kenya and attempted to re-deport him to Canada after a nine-hour stand-off at the airport.
But Mr Miguna refused to board the Dubai-bound Emirates flight, triggering probably the most dramatic scenes ever witnessed at JKIA in recent days.
“I am not going anywhere….where is my luggage? Where is my passport? You cannot take me from my country by force,” he remonstrated as the commotion delayed Flight EK 722 bound for Dubai.
So violent were the scenes that the pilot of the plane took time to listen to the hostile passenger police had bundled into his craft.
“I’m a Kenyan citizen by birth,” he told the attentive pilot, whose name the Nation could not immediately establish.
“These court orders say I must be in this country,” he went on as he brandished High Court orders that directed his return to Kenya after he was violently deported to Canada.
“So why are they pushing you in,” the pilot enquired.
“Because of politics,” Dr Miguna responded. “They are scared of me."
'NO WAY'
He proceeded to give reasons why he would not allow the pilot to take off with him.
"Now you, as captain, is (sic) not allowed to fly me anywhere against my will," he said.
"First of all, I don’t have a passport, secondly I didn’t book your plane, thirdly I don’t have status in Dubai … so how am I gonna go to Dubai? I don’t live in Dubai, I don’t work in Dubai, I have no connections to Dubai. So I’m not going to Dubai.”
He wrapped up his account to the pilot and his passengers with a call to action to the police, who had attacked and chased away journalists: “Let them kill me… Let them kill me… let them go ahead and do it.”
“They cannot chase me like a pig when I have court orders. I was born here… some of these guys were not born here… they are just thugs that have been hired. They have chased the media like rabbits. They are shooting at the media.”
Dr Miguna had been forcibly whisked to the aircraft by a contingent of about 40 police officers in full view of ODM leader Raila Odinga and his lawyers John Khaminwa, Cliff Ombeta and Julie Soweto.
JOURNALISTS
Another group of officers laid siege at the airport, beating up journalists to scare them from capturing the drama.
Dr Miguna was grabbed and literally carried to the aircraft that had been delayed for the purpose.
The barrister, who practises in Canada, has dismissed the newfound love and unity deal between President Kenyatta and National Super Alliance (Nasa) leader Raila Odinga.
He landed in Nairobi after taking his NRM agenda to German, London and Oxford.
“The #NRMKe isn't "isolated" by the "handshake”, he said on Twitter.
“The #NRMKe is not involved. We are not going to solve intractable societal ills through handshakes. We are going to do so through structural changes in governance.”
Kenya’s governance and leadership case, he said, is a choice between the “rule of law or despotism.”
APPEAL
Dr Miguna is one of the Nasa leaders who paid the steepest price of 'swearing-in' Mr Odinga as the 'people’s president' at Uhuru Park, Nairobi, on January 30.
He was arrested, locked up incommunicado, moved from one police station to the other and deported despite a High Court order barring the same.
The High Court on February 26 ordered his return to Kenya and suspended Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i’s declaration that Dr Miguna is a prohibited immigrant.
Justice Enoch Chacha Mwita further suspended the cancellation of Dr Miguna’s passport by the immigration boss Gordon Kihalangwa.
He ordered the Immigration Department to facilitate Dr Miguna’s return from Canada.
The Court of Appeal rejected government request to temporarily stop the High Court orders. The case is ongoing.
