President Uhuru Kenyatta has told government officials dealing with Miguna Miguna to enforce the law while respecting the courts, effectively leaving his fate in their hands.
It has also emerged that Miguna defied advice by leader Raila Odinga to comply with the government’s demands to amicably settle the dispute over his citizenship, before, he was deported a second time.
Uhuru met with the top security officials on Wednesday to brief him on the controversial lawyer’s status and the action they intended to take, before they later forcibly deported him in mysterious circumstances.
Read: Miguna refused to cooperate to be allowed entry - KNCHR
The security team told the President that they had done everything possible to facilitate Miguna’s re-entry into the country, but the self-styled NRM ‘general’ had become a “nuisance with his insistence that he be allowed in on his terms”.
The team, comprising Interior CS Fred Matiang’i, National Intelligence Service director Philip Kameru, Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett and Immigration PS Gordon Kihalangwa is understood to have concluded that allowing Miguna into the country on the strength of his national identity card was improper.
“They were united that Miguna must first produce his Canadian passport so that it is stamped before he can regularise his citizenship,” a senior official told the Star.
They also told the President there was a high possibility that Miguna was planning to sue for the tribulations over his citizenship and backing down would strengthen his case. They needed to cover all potential loopholes, said the senior official.
Miguna was deported to Dubai on Wednesday night aboard an Emirates flight, despite court orders for his unconditional production in court the next day [yesterday]. 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.
Yesterday, High Court judge George Odunga fined Matiang’i, Kihalangwa and Boinnet Sh200,000 each for contempt of court after they defied the order to produce Miguna, and further failed to honour summons to appear in court. Odunga ordered that the money be deducted from their salaries.
Miguna claims in several posts 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, where he was visited by Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Hoho, who is 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 re hurting all over. This is a travesty of justice,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Joho told his ODM colleagues that Miguna looked generally OK.
Miguna has insisted that he will only board a plane back to Nairobi but a source close to government security said they would not allow any plane with Miguna on board to land in the country again.
The government argues that Miguna, who holds Canadian nationality, automatically lost his Kenyan citizenship by birth, which he has denied.
He argues that his expulsion from the country is political.
[Statement] Fear isn't part of my DNA, says Miguna
CONFLICT
The raging controversy over Miguna’s status has sucked the Rxecutive and Judiciary into an unprecedented conflict.
Orders issued by the courts have been frustrated and resisted by the government, leading to a near stand-off between the two arms of government. The legal fraternity has protested at the streak of disobedience, although the government is not the only culprit in the worsening state of the rule of law since the 2017 General Election.
The courts have issued 10 court orders on Miguna’s case alone in the last two months, none of which has been obeyed.
Yesterday, President Uhuru flew to Mozambique for a three-day State visit, leaving behind a cacophonous national debate on the treatment meted out to Miguna and the conduct of State officials.
FRUSTRATION
Justice Odunga expressed the courts’ frustration with the Executive, noting that it would not be practical to arrest the four officials for contempt since the people who can enforce such orders are their juniors.
The judge said the three had exhibited unimaginable contempt, and displayed an arrogance of the highest level, even as the Attorney General dashed to the Court of Appeal to set aside the orders.
“The respondents are in charge of security of our country, they are in charge of executing orders and it’s clear they would not abide by the orders and none of their juniors will arrest them,” said the judge.
But he said anybody was at liberty to forthwith institute proceedings seeking their removal from office on grounds of integrity, accountability and rule of law.
Newly sworn-in Attorney General Kihara Kariuki — the former president of the Court of Appeal — said he was dissatisfied with the orders of the judge and was in the process of filing an appeal.
Justice Odunga said the manner in which executives conducted themselves did not inspire confidence, which is in violation of Article 10 of the Constitution.
Odunga was irked by the fact that the three failed to appear before him, even after he adjourned the case to give them time to do so or even get in touch with their lawyers.
Earlier, the judge was literally taken into a circus as Senior Principal State Counsel Charles Mutinda and Miguna’s lawyers argued on what steps the court should take after it became apparent the trio would not honoUr the court’s directive.
They urged the judge to also jail Mutinda, saying he had not done enough to ensure the three appeared in court.
In February, Justice Luka Kimaru declared the deportation of the self-professed NRM ‘general’ to Canada “null and void and of no legal effect”.
The judge faulted the Executive for removing the combative lawyer from the country, despite express orders from the court, and revoked the cancellation of his passport.
DEAL
Yesterday, NASA MPs cast doubt on the deal entered between their leader, Raila, and Uhuru, and the reconciliatory handshake meant to halt political hostilities.
The lawmakers, led by ODM chairman and Minority leader John Mbadi, said Miguna's second deportation from the country was inconsistent with the peace deal.
“We take note that recent developments, particularly the return to Kenya of Miguna and his second deportation, have cast doubts on the deal. There are no Jubilee or NASA problems. We have Kenyan problems and no single party can solve them on its own,” Mbadi said at a press conference.
Mbadi called on Raila and Uhuru to intervene and crack the whip on the officials if the country is to avoid returning to the pre-pact days.
ANC nominated MP Godfrey Osotsi accused the Jubilee administration of “sinking the country into deeper impunity” through the blatant disobedience of court orders.
But Kieni MP Kanini Kega said Miguna’s refusal to abide by the law had created “unnecessary tension”.
“If the President leaves and enters the country, his documents are always verified and stamped. Why would anybody think that you can come and leave the country without proper documents? We subscribe to international laws that govern the movement of persons in one country to another,” the Jubilee MP said.
He argued that those insinuating that Miguna was deported are wrong because he was not in Kenya but at the entry point.
“JKIA is a border point and one must be cleared by the Immigration department to enter the country,” he said.
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