Lawyer and self-declared National Resistance Movement general Miguna
Miguna reacts on Monday night after the Immigration department denied
him entry into the country after he refused to apply for a visa. PHOTO |
DENNIS ONSONGO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The pensive face of Nasa leader Raila
Odinga as he helplessly watched security officers grab Miguna Miguna by
the waist in a bid to force him out of the country on Monday night told
it all.
The former prime
minister’s reputation as a troubleshooter for his lieutenants was on the
line, especially in the backdrop of the March 9 handshake between him
and President Uhuru Kenyatta that was meant to build political bridges.
Despite
what was agreed being a guarded secret between the two, opposition
aides believe that rule of law was one of them. At Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport on Monday night, however, Mr Miguna was on his
own, forced to fight off his citizenship nightmare the brutal,
bare-knuckle way.
Although Mr
Miguna was not entirely blameless for the standoff — as he refused to
have his Canadian passport stamped — there was hope as soon as Mr Odinga
entered the airport that a solution would be found.
Mr
Odinga did not speak to the media when he alighted from his car at
10.05pm. He ignored journalists’ questions and walked straight to
Terminal 1E, where Mr Miguna was holed up alongside his lawyers James
Orengo, John Khaminwa and Cliff Ombeta.
SURRENDER PASSPORT
After a brief conversation with Mr
Miguna, the former Prime Minister was soon on his phone. Owing to his
new relationship with the President, it was assumed that he might have
placed a call in the hope of securing the release of his
friend-turned-foe-turned-friend.
But lawyer Nelson Havi, who was at the airport, told the Nation
on Tuesday that Mr Odinga might have got into the act a bit late as the
decision to re-deport Mr Miguna had been made five hours earlier, at
about 3pm, after the fiery lawyer refused to surrender his Canadian
passport.
“We believe that was
the time the decision to take him back to Dubai was made,” he said
yesterday, suggesting there had been a high level consultation within
the government over the manner the lawyer was handled.
However, Mr Havi does not know at what level the decision to turn Mr Miguna back was made.
SIGN PAPERS
“What
we know is that when it became clear that he would not surrender his
Canadian passport, and that he was not ready to sign papers to get a
visa, the decision to send him back was made,” he said.
Mr
Miguna has been an acerbic critic of the Jubilee government, and his
role in the January 30 ‘swearing in’ of Mr Odinga the point of no return
with state agencies.
He was
arrested and deported to Canada on February 9 as, the government
claimed, he was not Kenyan since he had renounced his Kenyan citizenship
in 1988.
His return on Monday
at 2.30pm came less than 24 hours after Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga
exchanged niceties at the Kenya Open golf tournament at Muthaiga Golf
Club on Sunday, where they re-affirmed their desire to unite the country
following last year’s disputed general election.
Mr
Odinga’s arrival at the airport coincided with word that the State had
deemed Mr Miguna an undocumented passenger, meaning he would be deported
again to his adopted Canada, via Dubai, because he had used an Emirates
flight to enter Kenya.
SHORT SCUFFLE
Sources
at Kenya National Commission on Human Rights blamed the standoff on
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, who, it was claimed, had
issued orders that Mr Miguna should unquestioningly comply with the
demands the immigration department was making.
Mr
Orengo’s arrival at the airport a couple of hours before Mr Odinga was
understood to be for the sole purpose of engaging Dr Matiang’i, while Mr
Odinga’s entry into the melee was proof that the Dr Matiang’i route had
borne no fruit.
Mr Odinga
engaged in a short scuffle with the police before settling to make a
call. As the Nasa leader talked on the phone, Mr Miguna attempted to
dash out of the airport, his luggage well dangling from the baggage
carrier, only to be stopped by three police officers who used their
bodies to barricade the door.
300 POLICE OFFICERS
It
is estimated that between 300 and 400 police officers were mobilised
for the operation that would see Mr Miguna picked up, in full view of Mr
Odinga, whisked away, and forced into the Emirates plane.
The flight had been delayed to ensure that the Kenya government’s unwanted visitor was taken back to where he had come from
A
forlorn-looking Mr Odinga, sandwiched by his security detail, emerged
from the terminal minutes later, defeated and angry. Again, he did not
speak to the media.
“Mr Miguna
has been whisked away by about 40 undercover police officers,” Mr Orengo
briefed the media shortly afterwards. “He has been described as an
undocumented passenger and forced into an Emirates flight.”
MEDIA ENGAGEMENTS
His
briefing, however, was cut short by heavily armed police officers, and
that was the last of orderly media engagements at the airport before
everything went blank.
Mr Miguna spent the night at the airport, but his lawyers, journalists and friends were barred from seeing him on Tuesday.
More
than 24 hours after landing on Kenyan soil, he was holed up at Terminal
2, where he had been transferred, ostensibly to minimise the image
damage to Kenya at the international arrivals, and also to better
contain him, the battering of journalists looking for him, and the team
of lawyers seeking to secure his release.
No comments:
Post a Comment