Facilitate the return of Miguna, KNHRC tells Government

Politician Miguna Miguna says he will return to the country from Canada on May 16. [File/Standard]

The Kenya National Human Rights Commission has asked the government to issue lawyer Miguna Miguna with his Kenyan poassport and buy him an air ticket from Toronto to Nairobi for his planned arrival on May 16.

The commission also wants the government to issue access cards to its commissioners  to meet the outspoken politician and Jubilee critic on arrival at the JKIA and facilitate his re-entry into Kenya. Miguna was  controversially deported from Kenya to Canada where he is a cititizen and denied entry into Kenya when he attempted a comeback before being sent back to Dubai from where he later flew to Canada.

This was despite more than 10 court orders that stopping  his deporation. He is holed up in Canada and plans to fly back on Wednesday. Kenyan authorities maintain he is not a Kenyan having revoked his citizenship. Miguna insists he is a Kenyan by birth and that right is inalienable. In 2018 he vied for Nairobi governorship as an independent and lost to Mike Mbuvi Sonko.

KNHRC chairperson Kagwiria Mbogori wrote to the immigration Principal Secretary Gordon Kihalangwa and Immigration Director on May 5 saying Miguna had informed them of his plans to fly back.

“Miguna has informed the commission that he will return to Kenya on May 16. To enable the Commission comply with the court directive, the Commission urges your office to comply with the court orders,” said Mbogori.

Ms Mbogori wants the government officials to give her a feedback by today (Thursday May 10).

Miguna has announced that he will return to the country on May 16, 2018.

This will be the second attempt by Miguna to return to the country after his second deportation in March, 2018.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, the lawyer revealed that he will land at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on May 16.

He said that he is a Kenyan Citizen by birth and that court ordered Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiangi and Inspector General of Police, Joseph Boinnet to issue him with a valid Kenyan passport.

He also said that he has a right to a fair trial.

“I am returning to Kenya on May 16, 2018. I am a Kenyan citizen by birth. The High Court has ordered Fred Matiangi, Gordon Kihalangwa, Joseph Boinnet and Kinoti 13 times to issue me with a valid Kenyan passport and facilitate my return to Kenya as a Kenyan unconditionally,” read the tweet.

“May 16, 2018, my return date to my motherland is now engraved on granite. Thanks patriots, NRM Kenya comrades, colleagues, for keeping the flame alive. We shall triumph,” another tweet read.

 “I am returning home on May 16, 2018. I'm a revolutionary Pan-Africanist. I'm not an anarchist. But even anarchists have the right to be presumed innocent until found guilty by a court of law after a fair trial,” read another tweet.

Another drama may be imminent at the airport if the Immigration Department refuses to allow Miguna in as it was when he came back after his first deportation.  

On March 30, Miguna’s return was thwarted by the Immigration Department.

He was then deported to Dubai aboard an Emirates flight, despite court orders for his unconditional production in court the next day. Attempts by Miguna’s lawyers, James Orengo and Nelson Havi to serve the orders on Immigration officials at the airport were violently thwarted by police.

Miguna claimed in several posts on social media that he was drugged and shipped to Dubai unconscious. He refused to board a plane to London and was being treated at a hospital at the airport in Dubai.

“I woke up in Dubai and the despots are here insisting that I must travel on to London. I’m sick. My ribs and body are hurting all over. This is a travesty of justice,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

The raging controversy over Miguna’s status had plunged the Executive and Judiciary into an unprecedented conflict when orders issued by the courts were frustrated and resisted by the government, leading to a near stand-off between the two arms of government.

Miguna’s troubles began after his participation in the swearing-in of opposition chief Raila Odinga as the people’s president at Uhuru Park on January 30, 2018.