Youth in Muguna’s village demonstrate over his deportation

Shock and sadness engulfed Kanyilum village in Nyando sub-county in Kisumu as villagers and Miguna Miguna’s family struggled to come to terms with his deportation to Canada.

Old women wailed, some barely able to walk, as chanting youths protested with placards, breaking the silence around the village.

Miguna’s relatives painfully narrated the ordeal they had undergone since the State arrested the lawyer last week.

Mary Oyando, Miguna’s stepmother, said she had been unable to sleep since the lawyer was arrested. Friends and relatives, she said, told her that nobody knew her son’s whereabouts since he was taken into custody.

Oyando, 78, who described Miguna as a hardworking young man, said she received the heartbreaking news of Miguna’s deportation from neighbours.

“I am heartbroken. Miguna is our son who was born here and grew up here and has been coming here to visit us... as well as pay my hospital bills,” said Oyando.

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According to his sisters, Miguna is the last born in a family of 11 and has been very hard working since they lost their parents at a tender age. His father died in the 1960s while his mother died in 1987.

“It is sad what the State has decided to do to my brother. We have been looking for him to stand with him but we were taken round in circles,” said Irene Anyango.

Sipros Akinyi said the deportation had left the family wondering whether they would see their brother again.

She decried what she termed as blatant abuse of Miguna’s constitutional rights by the Government.

“They treated my brother inhumanely because of his stand on truth and justice. We want him back because he is a citizen of this country by birth,” said Akinyi.

Miguna started his schooling at Apondo Primary School before proceeding to Onjiko High School.

Later on, he joined the University of Nairobi where he was involved in activism.