Miguna arrives in Nairobi amid citizenship controversy

Miguna Miguna. He landed in Nairobi on March 26, 2018. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

By IBRAHIM ORUKO
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Lawyer Miguna Miguna has arrived in Nairobi six weeks after the government ejected him from the country.

Dr Miguna landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 2.30pm, but is yet to be cleared by immigration officials.

VISA

His lawyer, Cliff Ombeta, said immigration officials asked Dr Miguna to surrender his Canadian passport and also apply for a Kenyan visa.

"They want him to take a temporary visa so that he becomes stateless when it expires. We have advised him not to sign the papers. They are now consulting their seniors,” Mr Ombeta told journalists at the airport.

"The despots have denied me entry! They are insisting that I must enter as a foreigner on a visa. I will not and cannot agree. My advocates appear either too weak or compromised," Dr Miguna said.

Officials from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights including chairperson Kagwiria Mbogori together with Dr Miguna’s lawyers Nelson Havi and Mr Ombeta are currently facilitating his clearance.

Dr Miguna was deported from Kenya to Canada on February 6. 

Interior spokesman Mwenda Njoka explained the deportation in an official statement, saying Dr Miguna also had a Kenyan passport, but which was illegally issued in 2009 by then Immigration minister, the late Otieno Kajwang’.

Mr Njoka said it was issued “without following the requisite legal process”, by orders of Kajwang’.

The statement said: “At the time he was working as an adviser to Mr Raila Odinga.”

ILLEGAL

Prior to being illegally issued with a Kenyan passport, Dr Miguna had been travelling using a Canadian passport, which he renewed on June 2017.

However, the Nairobi High Court declared Dr Miguna’s deportation illegal.

Justice Luka Kimaru said that Dr Miguna was deported at the time Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet and Director of Criminal Investigation boss George Kinoti were in contempt of court orders.

He said the removal of Dr Miguna from Kenya had no merit in law.

Additional reporting by Gabriel Otach