“They are scared of Raila Odinga, I mean if you touch Raila Odinga, the country burns down immediately, without any fear of contradiction I can say that,” the words of Miguma Miguna, a strong ally of the former Kenyan Prime Minister.
Kenya government scared of Raila Odinga – deported Miguna
According to the Kenyan lawyer who was deported to Canada on Tuesday after being slapped with treason charges, the Uhuru Kenyatta government unable to touch Raila continued to target people around the opposition chief.
“They also believe that Raila Odinga is a frail old man who would be easy to contain without people like me. So they want to cut Raila Odinga’s legs, they think as it were, metaphorically, I am one of Raila Odinga’s strong legs,” Miguna told RFI journalist Daniel Finnan in an exclusive interview.
Speaking from Amsterdam where he was on transit to Toronto, Canada, Miguna who has previously described himself as a “general” of the opposition resistance movement asked: “There were many lawyers at Uhuru Park that day who were present, why did they pick on me?”
He spoke at length about how persons purporting to be police stormed his home in the capital Nairobi and transferred him to multiple police stations whiles keeping him in inhumane conditions and away from his lawyers and family.
“A bunch of thugs purporting to be police detonated devices and (forcibly) entered my home in Nairobi. Theses were about thirty-five or forty armed men who did not identify themselves, they did not knock, they did not seek to see me, they just came in guns blazing, uprooted me, ransacked my house,” said.
On the subject of his citizenship, which the Interior Ministry said he had waived, Miguna described it as a flat lie.
“I never did, there is no reason to do that even in Canada because you can be a citizen of a 1000 countries in Canada and Canada wouldn’t even care. Canada is one country that recognizes multiple citizenship so you don’t need to renounce and I never did, will never do and never anticipated to do, so that is a total flat lie.
Citizenship by birth cannot be cancelled under Kenya’s constitution. He accused the state of taking the extrajudicial, extralegal measure of deportation because they had failed to get a compromised judge to do their bidding.
He administered a “presidential” oath to Odinga during a symbolic swearing in ceremony early last week. Miguna is one of three persons arrested in connection with the incident which the government described as treasonous.
Meanwhile, Odinga in his capacity as the ‘People’s president’ as sworn in by Miguna Miguna has reiterated his calls for fresh elections by August this year in an interview with the BBC.