For the third time since 2018, lawyer Miguna Miguna is embarking on a journey to return to the country of his birth.
Barring any red alerts that the government told the court are not in existence, the self-styled ‘general’, who is already in Germany, will depart tomorrow, transit through Paris, France and onto Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by Tuesday morning.
However, former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and Law Society of Kenya president Nelson Havi, who were expected to travel to Germany and accompany him to Nairobi will not be there with him. This is after there were delays in processing their visas.
“That notwithstanding, we have advised Miguna to travel because in her ruling on Friday, High Court judge Hedwig Ong’udi said that she has reviewed the replying affidavit of the Attorney-General on behalf of the government and it is manifest that there are no red alerts and the state has said it does not propose to prohibit Miguna from coming back. So Miguna is permitted to travel,” said Mr Havi.
Moreover, Mr Havi said there are two court orders already that direct the government to allow him to use the perforated passport or his national Identity Card to check into the country.
Mr Miguna is expected to fly either Lufthansa Airlines or Air France. In his petition to have the red alerts lifted, the Kenyan lawyer had listed the two airlines as first and second respondents respectively. In court, the director of Immigration Alexander Muteshi said that the government has never issued any “so-called red alerts” against Mr Miguna.
“The respondents have denied there being any red alerts as claimed by the petitioner/applicant,” the court’s ruling stated.
Despite the government through the Attorney-General and Director of Immigration Alexander Muteshi saying that there are no red alerts until he is allowed to board the aircraft from both Germany and France, Mr Miguna’s lawyers say they will not rest easy.
Anything could happen between the time the High Court delivered its decision on Friday and Monday when Mr Miguna is expected to depart Germany to Nairobi through France.
“There are two consequences we anticipate. One, he may be denied the right to board the plane from Germany or France. Or if he is allowed to board the plane, he may be denied the right to exit the plane at JKIA on account of a red alert. If that happens we will just go back to Justice Ong’udi and tell her that what she thought was speculation or premature has happened. So we will go back to court to remove any red alerts that may have been issued in between the time we left court and Tuesday,” said Mr Havi.
Even if there will be no red alerts to stop Mr Miguna from boarding the plane in Germany and France, there still could be a fight at JKIA.
In court, Mr Muteshi repeated what the government has been saying that they “intend to enforce the requirements of the law as regards re-entry into Kenya by citizens as applied to any other Kenyan citizen.” That could mean that they will demand that the immigration department would not clear him using the Identity Card as ordered by the court.
But the lawyers say that unlike the other two occasions when Mr Miguna was denied entry – once at JKIA after arriving and the second time blocked from boarding a Lufthansa plane in Frankfurt, Germany in January 2020 because of red alerts issued by the government - Miguna is not going back to Canada.
Mr Miguna’s expected return on Tuesday could coincide with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s presence in the country.
“We expect that since the Secretary of State would be in Nairobi the US may place on record its position on this matter which is of great impact on the rule of law. I think that coincidence should be for the positive,” said Mr Havi.
