Miguna Miguna's daring tour to end in Kenya

Lawyer Miguna Miguna. He landed in Nairobi on March 27, 2018. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Immediately he arrived in Canada, groups of Kenyans reached out to him to visit their cities and address various issues.
  • Mr Miguna accused a group of Kenyan promoters in Dallas of stealing Sh2 million from him.

PHILADELPHIA, PA

Nobody, not even his Canadian itinerary co-ordinator Lillian Asiimwe, knows how Mr Miguna Miguna made his way from Toronto to Washington DC, to begin his “Global Tour”.

This was the same day almost everything ground to a halt because of a major winter storm that had blanketed most of the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic corridor.

With almost all flights cancelled from Boston through Toronto to Washington – Maryland and Virginia areas – thanks to the winter storm that started in the evening of March 1 – Mr Miguna somehow managed to wade through it all from Toronto at the crack of dawn to the DC suburbs where he arrived almost 24 hours later.

“We had planned to attend the launch of the general’s tour in DC but we couldn’t because the State of Maryland had declared a state of emergency following the storm so we couldn’t drive.

"But we were surprised to learn that Miguna had turned up though late,” Mr Simon Kioko, a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, says.

ODM SUPPORTERS
Mr Kioko says that when a phone-recorded video of Mr Miguna started circulating the following morning, showing him holding court with about five or so ODM supporters in Maryland among them Onyango Nyunja, he realised just how committed the self-declared National Resistance Movement (NRM) general is.

“This was a day on which everything had practically ground to a halt because of the storm, but the guy somehow managed to make it to his first meeting,” he says.

After being unceremoniously deported to Canada, a country of his naturalisation, Mr Miguna became a global celebrity among a section of Kenyans, not just in Kenya but also abroad, who were unhappy with the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

His stature was enhanced when he played a central role in the ‘swearing-in’ of Mr Raila Odinga as the people’s president on January 30, leading to his deportation last month.

DEPORTED
Immediately he arrived in Canada, groups of Kenyans reached out to him to visit their cities and address various issues, including dual citizenship.

Mr Miguna also embarked on a media blitz making an appearance on countless online forums and radio stations in Canada, US and Europe talking about how he was going to energise the opposition base through NRM.

With this, he was confident enough to start his tour in Maryland.

Ms Asiimwe told the Sunday Nation that there were many requests from Kenyans in the diaspora for the politician to visit their cities.

But controversy has followed Dr Miguna wherever he has travelled during his month-long tour that is expected to culminate with his return to Kenya on Monday.

SWINDLER

Soon after the meeting in Dallas, Texas, on March 10, Mr Miguna accused a group of Kenyan promoters in the city of stealing Sh2 million from him.

The key organiser, Mr Steve Aseno, had booked the meeting hall and arranged for Dr Miguna’s flight.

The lawyer delivered a speech in Dallas, which was followed by a fundraiser for legal fees and repairs to his Nairobi home damaged by police when they went to arrest him.

He claimed publicly that Mr Aseno swindled money raised from the Dallas meeting.

However, Mr Aseno has denied the claims, stating he even spent Sh100,000 of his own money.

UNITY HANDSHAKE

The promoter said the event flopped after Dr Miguna launched attacks on Mr Odinga over his unity pact with President Kenyatta, days before coming to Dallas.

US-based Prof David Monda says Dr Miguna is likely to return to a different Kenya because of the unity handshake between President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga.

“The ground in Kenya shifted with the handshake and Miguna is likely to find out that without Raila, there’s no Nasa and by extension, NRM.

"Many young people, especially from Luo Nyanza may be willing to lay their lives for Raila but I doubt if they’d do the same for Miguna,” Prof Monda says.