What Miguna Miguna went through in jail before he left Kenya

Miguna Miguna during detention at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in March 2018. PHOTO| COURTESY

Miguna Miguna, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya has revealed intricate details of what transpired before he was forcefully flown out of Kenya in February 2018.

Prior to his departure, Miguna had "sworn-in" the NASA leader Raila Odinga at Uhuru Park grounds in Nairobi. What followed, Miguna revealed was “brutal torture” and a hurried exit out of the country.

Here is his side of the story.

On February 1, 2018, the police broke my door using explosives, ransacked my house for hours but they could not find me. Around 8 pm the same day they eventually broke the door to the room I was and stormed in guns blazing. None of the intruders wore a police uniform. There was no police vehicle with an emblem written police.

***Miguna Miguna house that was broken with explosives. Photo: Courtesy.***

Nobody shouted police when they broke in. They, later on, told me that they had no capacity to use explosives to break into my house. The recce squad and the military. They told me the military was not in my house. So it was the recce squad.

I had been anticipating that attack, so I had drafted a text message to go out as an alert to all media houses, journalist, lawyers, and organizations both local and international. The moment I heard the explosion I pressed the sent button. It went out and it was all over and it became inconvenient for them. The idea was to abduct me. Had they abducted me without people knowing and discovered that I was missing I would have been killed like Chris Msando.

They took me to Kiambu. I asked them why they could not take me to Runda Police Station or to DCI headquarters because I live in Nairobi. They threatened me and I kept quiet. I tried to call Orengo but they grabbed my phone. They took me to Kiambu Police Station.

They stayed there for a while and came back to the vehicle and they drove off. I saw them heading to Githunguri and asked why they are taking me there. The guy sitting to my left said they should blindfold me if I knew too much about where I am going.

Police stations

Miguna accompanied by police. File. Photo: Courtesy.

We reached Githunguri and they locked me in without telling me anything, whether am under arrest, they didn't read me my rights, no food no water, nothing.

The following day NRM (National Resistance Movement) people came to Githunguri and some of my friends and lawyers. When we went in they told me they had gotten an order for my release and I was relieved. For the first time, they brought me food.

At ten o'clock that night, the same people who abducted me came and told me to leave with them. They put me in a vehicle and drove to the night. They could drive, stop, drive and I thought I would be killed. Eventually, we ended up at the Lari police station and I was locked up under the most horrendous condition unimaginable. I stood for hours on end for more than a day. There was no chair and a place to sit or sleep. It was stinking.

In that room, a woman had been locked too. I came to know she was beaten by the husband but instead of arresting the husband they locked the woman with a political detainee. Eventually, the woman was moved to the other room after several hours.

The following day I was moved to the room where the woman was taken and she was transferred back to the room I was. There was no chair, nothing to sit on, nothing to sleep on, no blanket no bed sheet no toilet paper I slept on the real bare concrete. My shoes were my pillow. At one point I had to relieve myself because they could not open the door.

On the fifth day that is when they took me from there. Through Kiambu to Ruiru and we ended at Inland Depot Police Station in Embakasi. That was the only decent place I stayed. They gave me food, there was a small mattress to sleep on, there was even a toilet and water.

Court

The following day, the sixth day, they came, took me through Mombasa road and that is how I ended up in Kajiado Court.

The judge ruled that I be taken back to Nairobi by three o'clock. Instead, they took off to Nairobi, they took me through the route they took in the morning and I was taken back to Inland Depot Police Station.

After reaching there, they wrestled me to the ground they searched my pocket, took my Kenyan and Canadian passports, put me in a vehicle and took me to the airport. We stayed on the runway for six hours until midnight.

They took me to KLM (Dutch Airline) wanting me to board but I refused. KLM too refused. I didn't go through security, I didn't go through immigration or customs. I got to the plane through the runway, not handcuffed, accompanied by police. And that is how I ended up in Amsterdam.

Returned

Justice Chacha Mwita directed the State to issue me with a passport and travel document and facilitate my unconditional return and re-entry. When I returned they refused. They insisted that I had to come with a Kenyan passport which they had taken or enter as a foreigner. I said no because the court nullified my removal from the country.

They wanted to restrict my presence in the country. Suffice to say, I would have been invalidating the court order that had ruled that I am a Kenyan. They refused to allow me in they detained me there.

They refused to allow my lawyers to come in and see me. Particularly those who knew immigration laws. The chairwoman of KNHCR that had been ordered by the court to facilitate my re-entry together with the Kenyan state did not show up.

They frog-marched me to a waiting aircraft and tried to force me into the plane and I refused. The tore my clothes and stole my Sh150, 000.

They looked me in a toilet for two days with no shower. They injected with syringes until I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness I was in Dubai and they abandoned me there.

Miguna Miguna was speaking to Jeff Koinange during the Citizen TV JKLive show.