Miguna Miguna has refused to board the Emirates flight to Dubai and the captain is obliged to let him disembark. Miguna was violently ordered to board but caused drama on board and lectured the captured to follow international law that compels him to delay the flight
Prime Minister Raila Odinga was humiliated at JKIA after special police squad violently snatched Miguna Miguna from the hands of lawyers as the former premier helplessly watched and forced him to board a Dubai bound flight.
It was embarrassing as the former PM looked angry and frustrated a confirmation that the much touted handshake is literally dead.
Miguna later declined to board the Dubai-bound plane where he was put by police “as an undocumented person”.
This was after the self-styled NRMKe General was whisked away by about 40 plain-clothed police officers and put on the waiting Emirates flight.
Citizen TV’s Jeff Koinange, speaking aboard the Emirates plane, said they were already on the taxiway when the pilots stopped.
Police officers stood outside the plane’s door as a defiant Miguna, with his suits torn, stationed himself at the entrance.
The Dubai-bound flight was delayed for several hours, a situation Koinange said upset the over 400 passengers who had booked the flight.
“The doors have been closed and Miguna Miguna is not on board,” Koinange said.
Miguna declined to take a seat with concerns the pilot cannot fly the plane in the face of the hostilities.
The captain ordered the plane’s door shut after the NRMKe leader’s luggage was removed from the aircraft.
Earlier Senator James Orengo told journalists that intelligence officers, dressed as if they were employees of Emirates airlines, told them they had instructions to take Miguna to the aircraft.
“We refused, but towards the tail end the build-up of security officers was alarming,” Orengo said.
The stand-off and consequent removal of Miguna from the country followed his adamant refusal to apply for a Kenyan Visa soon after he landed at JKIA at around 2 pm.
Immigration officials insisted that he could only be allowed into the country on a Visa since he wasn’t a Kenyan.
Miguna’s forceful removal from the country marks yet another open violation of court orders by the government.
The court on February 15 ruled that the outspoken lawyer should not be restricted to back into the country following his abrupt deportation to Canada on February 6.
At some point, journalists were roughed up by a bevy of armed police officers moments before Miguna was whisked away.
Orengo said it was unfortunate that the episode played out in the full glare of international visitors at the JKIA.
“The fact that a thing like this can happen in the presence of arriving international visitors, some of them diplomats, puts us in the category of a banana republic.”
“President Uhuru Kenyatta and [William] Ruto should be ashamed of themselves to allow such a thing to be carried out in an international airport. But this will not be the end of the matter,” Orengo said.
NASA leader Raila Odinga who had arrived at the airport to try and secure Miguna’s release refused to comment on the matter and drove away.
Earlier, the opposition chief had a bitter exchange with police and immigration officials who refused to release Miguna into his custody.
Strategist Jimi Wanjigi, lawyers John Khaminwa, Nelson Havi and Julie Soweto were also at the airport.
Leave a Reply