Most dramatic scenes at JKIA as Miguna stopped second attempt to deport him

Lawyer Miguna Miguna spent Monday night at the JKIA lounge after the Emirates airlines' pilots refused to fly him to Dubai.

Police officers had forcibly dragged the lawyer and bundled him into Flight EK 722, which was delayed for nearly an hour.

He however stood on the plane's door and refused to take the seat, bursting into a rant into why he could not be flown to Dubai.

The airline's crew listened to him as he recounted his harassment by police, at one point turning around to show them how they had tore his clothes in the scuffle.

The pilots declared Miguna a hostile passenger and ordered him to leave.

This was after the plane had been forced to wait for one and half hours at the airport jeopardizing many passengers who were to connect to other destinations from Dubai.

Miguna was then left at the departure lounge where he spent the night before he was moved to the domestic terminal 2.

He managed to avoid the deportation by shouting and telling the pilots who were at the entrance of the plane he is a Kenyan, he did not have a passport and there were orders allowing him back to Kenya.

“He spent his night at the lounge,” said an official at the airport.

Miguna later said in a text he was being held at a lounge at domestic departures.

“They are detaining me incommunicado in a little hole in terminal 2 domestic on the other side of the airport. I have not eaten in 24 hours!"

Come yesterday morning, immigration officials said they were processing his papers to regularize his citizenship. This is despite the fact that his deportation had been termed null and void.

“To enable Miguna regularize his citizenship status, the Department of Immigration has this morning dispatched the requisite application forms to JKIA for Miguna to duly fill for processing,” said acting director of immigration Joseph Munywoki. 

Sources said the move was after some quarters in government protested the drama that happened at the airport despite the orders that had been issued to enable Miguna arrive in the country.

Miguna’s lawyers too had said they would return to the court on Tuesday for further orders after the earlier ones were ignored.

Immigration officials said he did not have a passport that he had arrived with earlier on to enable him be cleared.

This was also the reason the pilot refused to fly him to Dubai.

Miguna had 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.

The government rejected Dr Miguna’s return to Kenya and attempted to re-deport him to Canada after a nine-hour standoff at the airport.

But Mr Miguna refused to board the Dubai-bound Emirates flight, triggering probably the most dramatic scenes ever witnessed at JKIA. “I am not going anywhere….where is my luggage? Where is my passport? You cannot take me from my country by force,” he shouted at the flight officials as other passengers watched.

And after a standoff at the plane door that lasted almost 30 minutes, the pilots ordered he be removed. Witnesses said immigration officials arrived and took him back to the departure lounge.

The plane took off at about 12.32 am. It was scheduled to depart at 10.45 pm.

Miguna was armed with a copy of a court order that had ordered his return.

“These court orders say I must be in this country,” he said to the pilot who asked him why they are pushing him to the plane.

“Because of politics,” Miguna responded. “They are scared of me."

"Now you, as captain, is not allowed to fly me anywhere against my will," he said.

"First, I don’t have a passport, second, I didn’t book your plane, third, I don’t have relatives in Dubai...so how am I going to Dubai? I don’t live in Dubai, I don’t work in Dubai, I have no connections in Dubai." 

And the pilot heeded his plea and said he would not fly with Miguna.

Miguna had arrived at the airport at at 2.45 pm via Dubai prompting the drama. This was after he declined to surrender his Canadian passport to enable him be cleared. Immigration officials told him he would be issued with a 60-day tourist visa.

This infuriated Miguna who told the immigration officials he is a Kenyan.

“How can you issue me with a visa when I am a Kenyan? I have an identification document to show I am a Kenyan,” he told the officials as he showed them his national ID.

And after a standoff that lasted almost ten hours his supporters and other NASA leaders arrived at the airport in attempts to have him allowed to leave.

It was then that more police were called and started to beat up journalists who were present. They injured at least five journalists as another group of police and immigration officers violently pushed Miguna into the Emirates flight that was waiting.