Court Orders Must Be Obeyed,Am Travelling to Canada to Bring Miguna Miguna Home~Dr Willy Mutunga

After careful reflection and following broad consultations with lawyers, human rights and justice defenders, progressive politicians, and Mr Miguna himself, I have decided to travel to Toronto, Canada, to accompany Mr Miguna on his flight back to his motherland on 16 November 2021. I am also seeking out Kenyan journalists who will accompany me on this historic journey.

I have taken this extraordinary step for two fundamental reasons. The first is because of the continued, flagrant and reprehensible defiance of the Government of Kenya, its agencies and senior officials, against the numerous valid court orders in favour of Mr Miguna, The second reason why I have decided to undertake this journey is to support and defend the independence of our judiciary, its authority, and the people’s confidence in it.

As you may recall, Mr Miguna was illegally abducted from his house in Nairobi on 2 February 2018, detained incommunicado and tortured for six days. Mr Miguna’s house was unlawfully destroyed with detonators.

In defiance of habeas corpus orders issued by the Honourable Justice Wakiaga and the Honourable Justice Luka Kimaru directing that Mr Miguna be released immediately and taken to court, the Government of Kenya illegally seized his valid Kenyan passport and forced him into exile in Canada.

On 15 February 2018, Justice Kimaru ordered that Mr Miguna’s Kenyan passport be deposited with the High Court in the state in which it was seized. However, rather than comply, the Government of Kenya defaced and destroyed the passport before delivering it to the court.

That was an egregious affront to the rule of law. The Honourable Justice Chacha Mwita then issued an order on 26 February 2018 directing, among other things, that the Government of Kenya and its senior officials named in the Constitutional Petition Number 51 of 2018 facilitate Mr Miguna’s return to Kenya and grant him unconditional entry at the time of his choosing.

The Court also suspended the declarations and decisions of Interior and National Coordination Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i, and Director of Immigration, Major (Rtd.) Gordon Kihalangwa, that had purported to invalidate Mr Miguna’s citizenship and justify his forced exile.

However, when Mr Miguna flew back to the country on 26 March 2018, not only did the Government of Kenya block his entry, but senior government officials also imposed unlawful conditions on him in contempt of Justice Mwita’s orders, physically assaulting him, detaining him for three days in a filthy toilet at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, before sedating him and illegally removing him from the jurisdiction of the Kenyan courts to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on 28 March, 2018. Once again, the Government of Kenya did this in open defiance of multiple court orders by the Honourable Justice Roselyne Aburili and the Honourable Justice George Odunga. In a further display of disregard for the rule of law, the illegal removal to the UAE took place on the same day that Justice Odunga issued the order that the Government of Kenya and all its departments and officials release Mr Miguna unconditionally desist from removing him from Kenya.

These illegal actions by the government prompted Justice Odunga to take the unprecedented step of convicting several senior government officials, among them Dr Matiang’i, Major Kihalangwa, Director General of Police, Joseph Boinett, Director of Criminal Investigations, George Kinoti, Officer-in-Charge of the Flying Squad, Said Kiprotich, Officer Commanding Police Station at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and the Attorney General for contempt of court on 29 March.

Each of the contemnors was fined KSh200,000, which was to be deducted directly from their April 2018 salaries. To date, none of the contemnors has purged their contempt. They, therefore, continue to undermine the rule of law and to violate the oath of office they took as state officers.

On 14 December 2018, Justice Mwita issued his judgment in favour of Mr Miguna and indicted the Government of Kenya and its senior officials for violating his constitutional and human rights. This was following a hearing of the Constitutional Petition number 51 of 2018.

Significantly, Justice Mwita held that Mr Miguna is a Kenyan-born citizen who has never lost his Kenyan citizenship. The court nullified the cancellation of Mr Miguna’s citizenship and passport, and declared that his arrest, detention, torture and removal from Kenya were illegal, unconstitutional and a gross violation of his rights.

Justice Mwita awarded Mr Miguna KSh7 Million in damages and KSh270,000 for the destruction of his house. He also held that Dr Matiang’i, Major Kihalangwa, Mr Boinett, Mr Kinoti, the Officer Commanding Police Station at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Said Kiprotich, and Githu Muigai were not fit to hold public office. Justice Mwita’s orders were against the Government of Kenya and each one of the named government officials.

The Court quashed all the decisions and actions the Government of Kenya had taken against Mr Miguna and directed that the state return Mr Miguna’s valid Kenyan passport and any other identification documents taken from him, and facilitate his unconditional return to Kenya.