Blow for Miguna after latest High Court ruling

The Government’s decision to deport National Resistance Movement leader Miguna Miguna last week Wednesday stays put until Thursday when the office of the Attorney General will appear before the court to substantiate the decision, High Court Judge Justice Chacha Mwita ruled.

The High Court on Tuesday failed to grant the applicant (Miguna Miguna) conservatory orders which sought to restrain the government’s declaration that deported him as “prohibited immigrant.”

Mr Miguna, who is understood to have been born in Kenya, was deported last week, and the Immigration officials said he was illegally in the country, “as he was a citizen of Canada.”

Miguna, on Monday, through a battery of lawyers, launched a fierce legal battle to have the Jubilee administration compelled to facilitate his unconditional return, an application that was vehemently opposed by AG’s lawyer Charles Mutinda.

“Citizenship is a question of facts, give us limited time we file our papers so that we can rebut, we will abide by the directions of this court and we will respond as soon as possible so that the court can make its decision,” Mutinda said.

Fair hearing

In the ruling, the judge agreed with the AG’s lawyer, saying that it would be good to allow him to tell his side of the story before issuing any directives.

“What I gather in this application is there is the question as to whether the respondents were right in deporting the applicant yet he is said to be a Kenyan citizen,”

“There is the second question as to whether he was given a fair hearing, for this court to make orders it is important to hear the respondents and hear if they complied with articles of the constitution,” Justice Mwita noted.

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Lawyers John Khaminwa, Nelson Havi, Waikwa Wanyoike and Apollo Mboya yesterday urged judge Mwita to suspend the declaration by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, pending determination of the case.

Khaminwa accused the Immigration department of failing to give Miguna a fair hearing. He was removed from the country in blatant disobedience of court orders, he said.

Skip Court sessions

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet and Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti have filed an application not to appear in court in person on Thursday, February 15 for the hearing of their roles in Miguna Miguna’s case.

The two, who now claim they will be attending a meeting on national security, had been ordered by High Court Judge Luka Kimaru to appear in court to show cause why they should not be held in contempt.

IG Boinnet and Kinoti have also stated that the three detailed affidavits they filed in court explained their roles in Miguna’s case.

In their affidavits filed at the Milimani Law Courts (criminal division) on Friday, February 9, Kinoti and Boinnet said neither of them acted in contempt of court for failing to produce opposition politician Miguna Miguna in court on Thursday, February 8, as had been ordered by Judge Kimaru.