Miguna opens up about the last time he cried and how he met his wife

Love him, hate him, you can’t just ignore fire spitting lawyer Miguna Miguna, aspiring Nairobi Governor in the 2017 General Elections. He spoke to DAVID ODONGO about why he can’t talk about Raila, the last time he cried and how he met his wife

Nairobi Governor Dr Evans Kidero says the Nation government owes Nairobi County 60 billion. When you become governor, how will you recover the money? Please note KDF is among the biggest defaulters.

First I don’t believe anything Kidero says...I would conduct a thorough audit and follow the procedures to recover the money. You don’t communicate, government to government through newspaper adverts. That’s a waste of public funds.

After the Esther Passaris debacle on KTN’s Jeff Koinange Live show, Donald Kipkorir called you a failed lawyer...

I usually don’t respond to idle cartel surrogates. What is a failed lawyer? The lawyer who hasn’t looted and stolen public money? A successful lawyer has integrity, competence and is a good litigant on behalf of the client. I am more qualified than him at every level...he is a mediocre male socialite... His measure of success is dating ... and flossing about his cars and house. My values are integrity, competence and public service.

You seem to value education a lot...

Education is everything and I make the distinction with a difference between education and learning. Learning is going to school, sitting and passing exams. Education is the ability to grasp ideas, analyze issues and appreciate life in all it rich and varied context. I value education. One of the most educated politicians was Tom Mboya yet he had basic formal learning, he read, researched, thought and interrogated issues broadly.

I would get rid of the 8-4-4 system of education and replace it with the previous model (7-4-2-3). Quality of education has deteriorated. When in campus, regardless of what you were studying, books like Pedagogy of the Oppressed written by Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, French intellectual Franz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Guyanese historian Walter Rodney were a must.

Those are books you needed to read to understand how the African being has come to be what he is. They are educating robots for the purpose of unleashing them to the job market yet there are no jobs. Jobs require skills which is a different set of intellectual arsenal that human beings must acquire.

What’s your take on Sarah Serem and the Salaries Commission and the ballooning public wage bill?

These people haven’t read, internalized and organically interpret the Constitution. Their role is to ensure salaries and commensurate with what people put it, but if only people at the very top are the ones getting a lot of the money, and the gap between them and those earning Sh25,000, that’s a wide gap, and it’s the gap that should be bridged.

People can’t earn the same based on their education and qualification, but the figures should be far apart. Here, people earn Sh5 million and there is no productivity... and the law is wrong, why pay them salaries, and still pay them sitting allowance for doing their job?

Then you add per diems, and then you allow them to go for meeting in private hotels owned by them. ..why even the Judicial Service Commission went for a retreat out of town, they went to The Hague to choose the Deputy Chief Justice. How? Are you saying that you are so weak ethically, that if you stay in Kenya, you will be compromised? It’s even easier to be compromised when you are abroad because nobody will see you. They can hold all their meetings in Kenya, at the Judiciary, there are rooms there.

Who will be your running mate in the Nairobi Governor’s race?

I can’t name my running mate nine months to elections. The cartels can buy the running mate. Why should I give my running mate to the wolves? They might compromise him and he will mess me up when it’s nearly time for elections. Even American presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton named her running mate months to elections.

After your public fall out with Raila Odinga, can you walk in the streets of Kisumu freely?

My friend, I don’t want to talk about Raila. Raila will run on his ticket. Let him run his race. I am running my race as an independent. I am running against cartels, thieves, money launderers and drug dealers. But I don’t want to dwell on the past.

After running for governor, is there anybody you can support for the same seat?

How can I think after my tenure which is five years? I am not God. I am more focused on running this race and winning it. I am not a seer to start speculating on who I will support after five years.

Which Governor has performed well so far?

Most of the governors have failed. I don’t know anyone one governor that has delivered. I would say Makeuni Kivutha Kibwana has tried, and the Mandera (Ali Roba) and Wajir (Ahmed Abdullahi) governors. I haven’t been there but from newspaper reports, I see that they have tried. Other than those, I don’t know any other who has performed...

If you weren’t a lawyer, what else would you be?

I am a published writer. I have written six books. I am a married man, and I have to fulfil my functions as a husband. I am a father of five children, and I have to put food on the table and guide them as any normal father would do. What I have decided to do with my life is fight for justice and fight for corruption and tribalism.

When was the last time you cried?

When Dr Crispin Odhiambo Mbai was killed in 2003. There was no need to assassinate the man. He was a brilliant brain. I cried when he died.

How did you meet your wife?

I met her accidentally. I won’t tell you where. We just met accidentally. It wasn’t love at first sight. Love at the first sight is infatuation. I knew I liked her. People confuse many things with love, they even call lust love.

With your family in Canada, and you are all alone in Kenya, how do you survive?

You have to accept what life has thrown at you. My children go to school in Canada. The risk of them being attacked by violent people was too much, so I can’t have them here. There was a time somebody paid someone to try to poison me. I am involved in active politics and I publicly take hard positions on issues of national interest and of course, there will be people who won’t like what I say and do.

What is your vision for Nairobi County?

I would deal with solid waste management. I would initiate a rapid transit system. I would make affordable, humane and adequate housing a reality for people in Nairobi. I would also establish a scholarship programme for bright but financially disadvantaged children. I would also deal with hawkers. They are entrepreneurs, and all they need is a safe, organised and free space to run their business. I would also upgrade the dilapidated heath care system in Nairobi.

Did you practice law in Kenya?

I have a certificate to practice in Kenya. I practice here, and I have cases in Kenya.

When you want to eat properly, what is your favourite dish?

You are asking Miguna his favourite food? (laughs heartily) That’s tilapia and ugali and osuga.