Nelson Havi: We’ll travel on Sunday to bring Miguna back home 

Law Society of Kenya president Nelson Havi says he and former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga will travel to Germany on Sunday to bring back home political activist Miguna Miguna.

Dr Miguna, who lives in Canada, has repeatedly accused the state of forcibly bundling him out of Kenya in February 2018.

Mr Havi said they had initially planned to go straight to Toronto, Canada, but had to change their plans after Dr Miguna left Canada for Germany earlier this week.

Speaking at his office in Westlands, Nairobi, Mr Havi told the Nation that he had last week met other lawyers – Senior Counsel John Khaminwa, former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and Esther Ang’awa – to discuss the matter of bringing Dr Miguna back to Kenya.

The LSK boss said they had gone to court to seek the removal of a red alert issued by the government in 2018 to prohibit international flights from carrying Dr Miguna.

“We know that the path we have taken will be tumultuous but we are doing all that is legally possible to bring Miguna back home. That is why we want this red alert lifted. This is what was used in 2018 to stop him (Miguna) from boarding a plane in Germany and coming to Kenya,” he said.

The case was heard yesterday and a ruling will be made on Friday, November 12. 

Not a Kenyan citizen

The LSK boss said they were ready for all manner of opposition to their plans, but insisted they would not be cowed into giving up.

“There is one thing that Miguna Miguna, Khaminwa, former CJ Mutunga and myself have in common, and that is our unrelenting fight to ensure that there is access to justice, adherence to the rule of law and constitutionalism. If we do nothing about bringing Miguna back home, then we will age with shame,” he said.

While removing Dr Miguna from the country in 2018, the state argued that the fiery lawyer was not a Kenyan citizen, having taken up Canadian citizenship, a claim the LSK chief countered, saying Dr Miguna  was forced to flee the country by President Daniel Moi’s harsh regime in 1986.

“You cannot deport someone from his own country. In fact, what they did was not deportation; that was forcible removal of someone who is Kenyan by birth. We demand that those who were involved in his unlawful removal be removed from office,” he said.

Several court orders directing the state to allow Dr Miguna back to Kenya have been ignored.

Mr Havi, who is running for the Westlands parliamentary seat, accused Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i for failing to comply with the orders.

“Should he fail to obey the orders, then he will be plummeted and pushed to the wall by the law, and that is not a very nice thing,” the LSK boss said.

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