Former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has castigated the treatment, deportation and re-deportation of lawyer Miguna Miguna.
He argued that the matter should have come to an end when a court ordered he was Kenyan and that he had not lost his citizenship, Dr Mutunga said Dr Miguna’s treatment was inhumane and unconstitutional.
“Everybody knows that he was born here, he went to university, was expelled..., went to Canada, and made a life there. This thing that you lose citizenship is not there. These debates are irrelevant.”
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet, and Immigration Principal Secretary Gordon Kihalangwa are guilty of contempt of court in the Dr Miguna deportation saga, and have been fined Sh200, 000 each.
This was the second time Miguna was being denied entry into his country of birth after he was deported out on February 6 following five days of being held incommunicado in different police stations.
He was accused of treason for his role in commissioning the mock swearing-in of opposition leader Raila Odinga as the “people’s president.”
“These people do not know how the court convictions are going to harm those individuals,” Dr Mutunga said.
“Soon someone will go to court and say these are convicts, they are State officers and, therefore, they are not suitable to hold office.”
He disbanded the defence by the trio that they had not been served, saying that court orders can be served “based on your knowledge.”
"In any case, who is going to serve Matiang’i? It is like that case of Kenneth Matiba asked to serve (former president Daniel Toroitich arap) Moi. It can’t happen!"
Me Mutunga said that the Judiciary now had the biggest responsibility in theirhands to defend the Constitution.
“It cannot be what it was in the Moi and Jomo Kenyatta dictatorships. When they are making orders about Miguna, they are not doing it because they are courageous. They are doing it because it is what the Constitution they swore to protect says.”