PRIME MINISTER RAILA ODINGA IS EMBARRASSED BY PNU OVER HIS ENGAGEMENT OF AN ADVISER WHO HOLDS BOTH CANADIAN AND KENYAN PASSPORTS.
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
The Prime Minister Raila Oginga is in a state of shock after discovery that one of his close political associates is a holder of a foreign citizenship.
The advisor, Mr.Miguna Miguna ignited the debate over his immigration status after writing a by line article to one of the Kenya’s local dailies in which he severely criticized the retired President Daniel Arap Moi as a person with no elementary education.
The article, which was published on January 5, 2010, sparked off the controversies concerning his Kenyan citizenship status. And yesterday Luo MPs from Nyanza Province disassociated themselves from the views expressed by Mr. Miguna on the retired President Daniel Moi, and disowned him, saying his views were personal and did not represent the views of Nyanza leaders.
Reading a joint press statement on behalf of five others, the Migori MP, John Pesa, categorically denied that Mr. Miguna was the ODM spokesman on constitutional matters.
At the same time, a full page paid up advertisement by the Party of National Unity (PNU), which is a member of the Grand Coalition, has published full details of Mr. Miguna’s dual citizenship, plus his two passports, one issued by Canadian government and the other one by Kenyan government. According to the current Kenya constitution, dual citizenship is not allowed, therefore Mr Miguna, according to PNU, is in total contravention of the law.
The PNU wants the Prime Minister, Raila Odinga to relieve him of all the duties he had assigned him, and if possible, open criminal investigations, so as to ascertain the issues.
Pesa said the Luo MPs statement had the blessing of five other MPs from the region who did not sign it. They include the Minister for Public Works, Dalmas Otieno, and the Immigration Minister, Gerald Otieno Kajwang.
Dalmas Otieno could not be reached immediately for comment, while Otieno Kajwang’ admitted that he was a party to the statement.
The MPs sought to distance themselves from the article by Mr. Miguna Miguna, that was published by a section of the local dailies on January 5,2010, which directly attacked the personal of Mr Moi. They said the views expressed did not reflect the views of Nyanza leaders.
Mr. Miguna Miguna is a former radical student leader at the Nairobi University. He went into self imposed exile in Canada during the reign of the former President Moi’s draconian rule. But he returned to Kenya in 2007, and even participated in that year’s general elections. He contested Nyando seat in Nyando district, and lost during the ODM preliminaries to the incumbent Fred Outa.
In the controversial article, Mr. Miguna Miguna described the former President Daniel Moi as a man who had virtually no formal education, despite having served as Kenya’s leader for many years.
Immediately after the general election, Mr. Miguna Miguna started appearing in many functions conducted by the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and even taking up the lucrative post as the Prime Minister’s advisor on Grand Coalition Affairs, and also as a member of the permanent steering committee on draft constitution between the ODM and PNU.
However, Mr. Miguna Miguna landed in more deep trouble with the PNU this week when the party spokesman wrote to the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, questioning the citizenship status of his close advisor. The PNU letter, which is published in the today’s DAILY NATION as a paid up advertisement is addressed to the Prime Minister, and reads as follows;-
The PNU wishes to draw your attention to the legality of the citizenship of Mr. Miguna Miguna, your Advisor on constitution affairs on Coalition Affairs and a member of the Grand Coalition Consensus Committee, including hiring as public officers, persons of impeccable characters to the laws of Kenya.
“We wish to draw your attention that while Mr. Miguna Miguna was born in Kenya, he has since become a citizen of Canada. Like all other expatriates working in the country, our laws require that Mr. Miguna Miguna apply for and obtain the relevant work permits to live and work in Kenya..”
The most recent proof that Mr.Miguna Miguna is a Canadian is the high profile case involving three charges of sexual assault against him in the Court of Appeal for Ontario, Canada, one involving an African female refugee. In the appeal case, “Miguna Miguna V Toronto Police Services Board, 2008 ONCAa799”, dated 28th November 2008. Justice of Appeal R.A. Blair, J.A. wrote, “Miguna Miguna is a barrister and solicitor, practicing in the areas of human rights, law and immigration and refugee law, amongst others”.
He was born in Kenya, subsequently immigrated to Canada and became a Canadian citizen. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1995.
Correspondingly, Mr. Miguna Miguna holds a Canadian passport number MJ 393885 ISSUED ON 27 January 2003 at North York {copy submitted and attached}. In addition to the Canadian passport, Miguna Miguna also holds a Kenya passport number A116842 issued on 23rd March 2009 at Kisumu and expiring on 22nd March 2019 {Copy attached and submitted}.
Kenya’s current constitution, the PNU’s letter adds, does not provide for dual nationality, and it is illegal to obtain and carry two passports. Suffice it to say that the PNU Coalition bears in mind the legitimate aspiration of millions of Kenyans living and working abroad to have dual citizenship, and has subsequently endorsed this position in the on-going review process. But we also demand nothing less than total respect for the rule of law and the constitution, which Mr. Miguna Miguna evidently continues to contravene.
The PNU letter went on, “The foregoing is sufficient proof that Mr. Miguna Miguna’s citizenship status is irregular. It is paradox that while you have assigned the said Mr. Miguna Miguna the morally-demanding task of working with others to deliver a new constitution, he is clearly not predisposed to respect the current constitution.
Accordingly, we call upon your good office to do the following;-
A} Immediate release of Mr. Miguna Miguna from his duties as your advisor on Constitution Affairs, member of the Grand Coalition Consensus Committee and other public duty you may have assigned to him.
2} Alert the respective arms of the laws to immediately commence investigations into all criminal aspects relating to this matter with a view to enforcing the law and punishing crime.
3}Publicly denounce and distance yourself from the blatant of the laws of Kenya.
The letter is signed by Mr. Moses Kuria. The spokesman of the PNU concluded by saying, “We trust that you will expedite actions on the matter. On our part, we have instructed our lawyers to explore all the legal options for expediently dealing with the same”.
Although the Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, has not responded, he would be well aware that, the surfacing of this issue at this time, has something to do with the Nyando constituency politics, since the architect of the issue, who is suspected to have been peddling Miguna’s documents, and contacting PNU against Mr.Miguna, was once his father’s {Jaramogi Oginga Odinga} aide and Raila Odinga is aware how their relationship went sour.
Mr. Miguna Miguna, who is an abrasive man, is also said not to be getting along well with the incumbent Nyando MP Fred Outa, who it is being alleged, is working in collaboration with the discredited unnamed Kenyan, living in Canada on a self-imposed exile, who had differed with Mr. Miguna Miguna, and on several occasions, posted some Canadian court document to a number of people in Kisumu and elsewhere, meant to cut Mr Odinga’s advisor to size.
The erratic Kenyan in Canada, and former aide to Raila Odinga’s late father, differed with the family before moving to Canada. He recently sent some money home for the construction of a semi-permanent house in his rural Kano, and also sent an air ticket for his five children, who have since joined him in Ottawa Canada.
This man had previously posted the same court papers from Canada to this writer, and tried to convince him to publish them against Mr. Miguna, but the journalist thought the papers contained some element of libelous material, and kept them in his file. He was later said to have wired the same information back to Kenya, when it was obvious that Mr.Miguna Miguna would contest the Nyando seat.
Outa, the Nyando MP, was yesterday seen in one of the national TV footage disassociating himself with Mr. Miguna Miguna, saying his views do not reflect that of Nyanza leader. He is the one suspected to have convinced the Luo MPs to issue a statement disowning Mr. Miguna Miguna’s stand on Mr. Moi. Some Luo MPs were also recently heard in bad gossip against Mr. Miguna, alleging that he is “too rude and arrogant”.
The Canada based ex-Kisumu resident, it is being alleged, is feeding Hon Outa with court and other documents against Mr. Miguna Miguna from Canada, for a political “kill”, to weaken his rising star as Raila’s advisor, and a potential possible future Nyando MP.
Ends
Cabinet minister Otieno Kajwang’
– Should use his departmental powers to detain him
-Should declare him a prohibited immigrant
-Call his presence a security risk
-sign a deportation order for Miguna Miguna
In 2007, just before elections, ARUM TITI, wrote an article about Miguna Miguna. The words included this; ” Too rude and arrogant! ”
The very words that have come back to haunt Miguna Miguna and Raila! Miguna would never be able to hold any post there in Canada as a result of his troubles with the Law in Canada!
But he can be an adviser of the leader of African nation-Kenya! What a shock!
Miguna should have known to shut his big mouth! Moi must be smiling! He has not even opened his mouth yet, and Miguna is on fire! What a Kenyan politics we live in!
Brother Miguna, learn a thing or two. People are well informed now, with the damaging allegations of Rape upon your person, you are better off silent as a Church mouse!
Be it truth or false. These things stick, and they shall not be erased, no matter how much you try to disprove them!
Mr. Raila, if you are intelligent, get rid of him very fast!
TEKERE JELULE!
Something new with numbers,
Hopefully I’m wrong. Migunna becames a politician, cam advisor within three years.
Migunna was, and lived in Canada for 20some years.
Talk of learning ropes.
Written by Eric Ng’eno
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
It would be manifestly dishonest for anyone to describe Miguna Miguna as humble. The man seethes, bristles, and otherwise emanates the most virulent sparks of arrogance, and a penchant to ride roughshod over everyone who dissents from his way. Indeed, he considers tout le monde intellectually inferior to him, and when he deigns to communicate with ordinary mortals, the exasperation in his tone, the condescending patience, is of a man tragically hobbled with the company of imbeciles. As a result, he gratuitously disparages and humiliates those with whom he must interact.
The frost between PNU and ODM, and between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga over this katiba business is attributable to his singular and implacable animus. He treated Prof Kivutha Kibwana like an academic failure in a remedial class. Eventually, the political positions hardened, and a tacit agreement to disagree seemed the only sensible outcome.
But our Miguna has been quite busy, hasn’t he, passing severe judgement on Moi, Balala, Ruto, Kalonzo, Uhuru and anyone not seen to toe the PM’s, or more likely, Miguna’s line. His verdicts bestride an absurd and spurious binary of terms: those for the PM, or more probably, Miguna, are revolutionaries, reformists, or both, whereas those who aren’t are KANU or Moi orphans, misty eyed with abject nostalgia for the Dark Ages. In the context of rapidity in amassing of enemies of every streak, Miguna is insuperable.
It was therefore a complete no-brainer that some disenchanted anti-reformist would begin to interrogate the good man’s past. All of a sudden, the PM together with Season’s Wishes, received a letter advising that Miguna might not be a citizen of the country. It sounded laughable. In that spirit, Miguna stated that he had never, ever changed citizenship, and challenged his accusers to prove WHERE, HOW AND WHEN he changed citizenship, which he acquired by birth. He also said that he fought for the liberation of this country, including while in exile, before returning to Kenya. The Nation quoted him as saying, “When fleeing a dictatorial regime, one uses any means and even Mr Odinga once used a Tanzanian passport.”
At play is that pernicious giveaway. He is, after all, a freedom fighter. He is entitled to our generous accommodation and understanding of all his claims, indiscretions and pride. Criminal offense? A freedom fighter is incapable of committing crime. Freedom fighters use all means, dammit, to save your imbecile-head over there, so that you can enjoy the fruits of Uhuru. Freedom fighters sacrifice, darlings, they rob, kill and rape for you! You cannot accuse your saviour of imperfection, that is heresy! Despite any allegation and proof, I am born innocent, and stay innocent till kingdom come. So? So, beat it! Entitlement.
Now PNU has picked up Miguna’s gauntlet and run a full page advert in the press. There are copies of passports. This is really fine by me.
What really catches my attention in the advert is this sentence:
The most recent evidence that Mr. Miguna is a Canadian citizen is the high profile case involving three charges of sexual assault against him in the Court of Appeal for Ontario, Canada, one involving an African female refugee.
The case under reference is cited in the advert as Miguna v. Toronto Police Services board, 2008 ONCA 799. The fight for freedom clearly takes many interesting forms. To be fair, Miguna was acquitted on all three charges of sexual assault, because of conflicts in the evidence and so forth. The accuser seem to have been clients of his legal practice. The case referred to is a ramification of his action for malicious prosecution and related causes, against the Canadian Police.
I want to say only two things about this saga. Does pride come before a fall? Who knows? But it is safe to say that he whom the gods would destroy, they first call a Barrister in Canada. And advisor to the PM on Coalition affairs.
Over ten Luo MPs, more than the number who are on record attacking Ruto, Balala and Moi, have signed and read a statement totally disowning Miguna. In effect, the barrister is well and truly fired, friendless and of dubious nationality.
Secondly, the PM himself. Clearly, he is obsessed with the cachet of foreign extraction. Germany, US, wherever. It has to be there somewhere. I think it is better to scrutinise these ‘foreign’ fellows first before admitting them as spokesmen and advisors. First, we had Dick Morris who was brought in by the PM to sex up the ODM campaign. The fellow slipped away in the dead of night, unnoticed as a thief. It turns out that he was alleged to have some unusual fetishes of a sexual nature, causing him much discredit huko kwao. Is there one good Dick out there? Cheney, perhaps? Then Antoine Hey, either spaced-out or mentally challenged. Probably both. Certainly a singular disgrace in whatever he was meant to have been doing.
Now, we have a refugee abusing Canadian barrister, and an advisor to the PM on coalition affairs.
Questions regarding the soundness of Mr Odinga’s judgment are bound to be legitimised by such debacles.
How come that many foreigners are allowed to hold dual citizenships in both Kenya and their motherland while Kenya? Who is in dire need of outspoken individuals like Miguna Miguna, tries to exile the few educated people they have? Why is Kenyan Africans afraid of fellow Africans?
Miguna Miguna was involuntarily driven out of the Kenya by Daniel “nyayo” arap Moi. Furthermore, there is absolutely nothing wrong with PM getting advice from the guy who was born and raised in Kano. There are many non-citizens foreign advisors in Kenya, interfering in every level of Kenyans’ lives as we speak. These foreigners know more about what is happening in Kenya than the noisy ruling elites, who behave like push buttons, incapable of thinking for themselves.
Who was Kibaki’s the chief advisor during the events that led to the rigging of 2007 elections? What about Kofi Annan and Moreno Ocampo, dwho are suppose to drag some Kenyans kicking and screaming to the Hague, are they Kenyan citizens? COME ON!
Kenya should open all cases in which many Kenyans have been killed, disappeared without trace or escaped with their lives to some unknown foreign land! This could reveal those with clean hands !
Most pristine acres of Kenya’s land are in the hands of foreigners who are not citizens. These non Kenyan citizens control every aspect of Kenyans’ lives including the decisions made regarding
(a) Military expenditure: Kenya must spend of its taxpayer’s money on military equipments and has borrowed heavily to meet that foreign demand
(b) Education: Recently, there have been talks about foreign aids earmarked for education being stolen by some education officials, which indicates Kenya relies heavily on foreigners to finance the education of its children. I wonder why a foreign country would spend its taxpayer’s money on education of another country’s children, unless there is some good profit to be realized in return.
(c) Employment: these non-citizen foreigners have a say when working Kenyans should be laid off their jobs, so that Kenyan government can concentrate in paying the debts it has incurred through military expenditure. Young people with school aged children are retired at the age of 45 at the commands of Word Bank and IMF officials, who finance most of what is happening in Kenya. Since these people do not give money for nothing, it is proper to ask what assets/natural resources of Kenya are they holding as surety?
I am sure the people who feel most uncomfortable with Miguna Miguna may be the foreigners who do not want the rest of the country to understand the tight control they have in Kenya’s affairs through the ruling elites. Due to poverty caused by the choke hold they have on people of Kenya, these foreign interests manage to invest some little money on Kenyan parrots to wreak havoc in Kenya on their behalf.
When you see haters crawling in on a guy, it means the dude is doing a good job.
Keep it up bwana Miguna. Not so many folks will leave luxurious lives in Canada or elsewhere in the developed world to join the murky waters of Kenyan politics, unless they have the love of the country at heart .
Come on guys, we can do better than that.
Doesn’t it matter to you folks that Miguna Miguna is a competent individual who demonstrates a lot of passion in whatever he does?
The point is: Do you prefer a good man or a good worker as your leader? Good men are found and are suitable for leadership in places of worship but elsewhere we simply require a competent operator to confront the brutal challenges of politics and life. Period.
Miguna’s temperament, his unflattering assessment of others as well as attitude are secondary. ODM has the best man for the job.
I think it is better to have a Kenyan born foreigner, a Miguna, than to have the ARMENIAN ARTURS!
The Arturs were there for KIBAKI. Why not not leave a one Miguna for Raila! After all he is a JALUO, like Raila.
NDALAT MOSOP
miguna should not be allowed to make any transactions with kenya citizens .thanks for allowing my participation.