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Kenya to appeal on opposition firebrand Miguna deportation ruling

Thursday February 15 2018
Miguna pic

Kenya opposition firebrand Miguna Miguna. FILE PHOTO | NMG

By VICTOR KIPROP

The Kenyan government has said it will appeal a high court decision that termed the stripping of citizenship and deportation of opposition firebrand Dr Miguna Miguna illegal.

In the ruling on Thursday, judge Luka Kimaru directed the government to deposit Dr Miguna’s revoked passport at the court within seven days.

But the government says the verdict "was not in the best interest of the country."

“In as much as the government respects the court’s decision, the government still holds its stated earlier view that the deportation of Mr Miguna Miguna was done in accordance to the law,” said the Principal Secretary at the Interior Ministry, Karanja Kibicho.

The government had argued that Dr Miguna was no longer a Kenyan citizen as he had renounced his citizenship and never bothered to reclaim it.

Dr Miguna was deported to Canada on February 6 after being held incommunicado for five days.

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He had been arrested for his role in the mock inauguration of opposition leader Raila Odinga as the "people's president" and for describing himself as a general of a recently proscribed group, the National Resistance Movement.

Judge Kimaru said Dr Miguna's deportation had no merit in law as at the time the police chiefs -- Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet and Director of Criminal Investigation boss George Kinoti -- were in contempt of court for failing to produce him for a hearing as had been ordered.

The ruling followed a suit filed by Dr Miguna through his lawyers early this week, seeking reinstatement of his Kenyan passport and citizenship.

-Additional reporting by Galgallo Bocha.

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