Self-declared general of National Resistance Movement (NRM) Miguna Miguna has made true his threats to challenge his deportation and withdrawal of his Kenyan passport in court.
"I will challenge all the illegal and unconditional actions by the despots in court starting today (February 8). I have instructed a battery of competent advocates to ensure that the ongoing rogue purveyors of impunity are brought to book," Miguna had said shortly after arriving in Canada.
The outspoken lawyer has filed a suit at the High Court through veteran counsel John Khaminwa seeking to quash the deportation orders and reinstate his citizenship.
The case filed under a certificate of urgency lists seven respondents among them Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’I, Director of Immigration Gordon Kihalangwa, Attorney General and officer in charge of flying squad Said Kiprotich.
Miguna wants the court to declare that the respondents abused their office.
“That a declaration be and is hereby issued that the manner in which the Respondents conducted themselves resulting to the purported cancellation of the citizenship of the Petitioner, revocation and confiscation of his passport and other identity documents and the declaration that he was a member of a prohibited class and a prohibited immigrant and removal from Kenya were done in violation of the rule of law and in direct contravention of provisions of the constitution,” his affidavit read in part.
He also wants the state to allow him back into the country.
He was deported aboard a KLM flight on Tuesday February 6 over what the government termed as violation of the provisions of section 33(1) and 43(1) of the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act, 2011.
Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka claimed Miguna lost citizenship when he acquired a Canadian passport in 1988 after his application for a Kenyan one was denied on September 12, 1987.
Under the repealed Constitution, Kenyan citizens could only have one nationality and those who acquired other nationalities automatically lost their Kenyan citizenship.
However, when the 2010 Constitution came into force, Kenyans who had lost their citizenship in this manner were required to apply afresh; something the State maintains Miguna did not do.
Apprehension
Miguna who has vowed to put up a spirited fight to return to Kenya has expressed concern over what could happen to him when he returns.
According to him; he faces probable jail term, exile or even death.
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"Even with a million charges they will never get a conviction in a proper court of law because they went against a man they cannot win against,” he told a local news agency.
Miguna Miguna, a one-time Raila Odinga advisor, caused a storm after police arrested him for “officiating” in the NASA leader’s swearing in ceremony on January 30.
They did not produce him in court within the mandatory 24 hours after the arrest, prompting Justice Luka Kimaru to order the Kenya Police Service to do so.
This was not done after which the court ordered the Inspector General Joseph Boinett and the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti to appear before the court and explain why they had disregarded the order.
On the same day, Miguna Miguna was, however, arraigned in a Kajiado court where he declined to take plea with the magistrate directing that he appears in the high court first.
That night he was deported to Canada where he runs a law firm specialising in immigration.
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