National Post (National Edition)
Canadian claims Kenya drugged, deported him
Tested for poison after incident at Nairobi airport
A Canadian-Kenyan political activist, now back in Toronto, claims he was injected with “poison” in Nairobi before being flown unconscious to Dubai.
Speaking after a visit to a Toronto hospital for what he said were toxicology tests, Miguna Miguna said he intends to return to Kenya as soon as possible to “continue the struggle.”
A self-declared general of the National Revolutionary Movement of Kenya, Miguna says he was drugged and forcibly removed from his homeland after being held against his will in a Nairobi airport toilet.
“I wouldn’t say I’m OK, but I’m here,” he said by phone Monday from Richmond Hill, Ont., where he has a permanent home.
On Facebook earlier Monday, Miguna described recent events as an “illegal and violent abduction, torture and chemical poisoning by the tyrannical Jubilee regime.”
There was no immediate response from Kenyan authorities, though Kenya’s immigration department retweeted a post calling on the public to ignore a rumour that Miguna had been sedated or drugged.
Miguna said his troubles began earlier this year after he stood beside Kenyan opposition leader Ralia Odinga during a mock inauguration to protest President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election.
Odinga had argued that Kenyatta lacked legitimacy because his initial Aug. 8 reelection victory was nullified by the Supreme Court over “irregularities and illegalities.” The repeat election had a low turnout as Odinga boycotted it, citing a lack of electoral reforms.
Deported from Kenya in February, Miguna tried to return on March 26 to continue agitating against Kenyatta.
“I arrived at the airport and they wouldn’t let me in,” he said in the interview Monday.
Miguna said he holds Kenyan and Canadian citizenship but authorities in Kenya dispute his Kenyan status.
“They said I had to use my Canadian passport and enter Kenya as a foreigner, but I was born in Kenya. I’m a Canadian citizen. Two courts have already found that.”
Miguna claimed that Nairobi officials assaulted him and tried to put him on a plane back to London, England.
When he resisted, he said he was placed in “incommunicado detention.” This involved a stay in an airport washroom for a number of hours before he was pounced upon by armed men, he claimed.
“The toilet was very small, so part of it was psychological torture. They were all armed to the teeth.”
Miguna said a human rights lawyer and a Canadian consular official in Nairobi had been allowed to see him, but it was when these people left him briefly that he was dragged away.
“They came, broke the doorway, wrestled me to the ground and injected me with chemicals,” he said about the incident that unfolded Thursday. “I woke up in Dubai.” He said when he regained consciousness, the plane was nearly empty, except for the Kenyan officials who he said accompanied him.
In an earlier post on social media, he said Air Emirates “claimed that it was forced to carry me unconscious with no travel documents because the state had refused to allow them permission to leave.”
Emirates did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Handed over to officials in Dubai, he said he tried to obtain emergency documentation in the United Arab Emirates but was met with “no help at all” from Canada. His Kenyan passport, returned to him by order of a Kenya court, had been punched full of holes, he said.
It was only when a friend to whom he had given his Canadian passport for safekeeping flew to Dubai and handed it to him that he was able to get to Toronto. He arrived home Monday morning.
“I will be making a complaint with the Canadian government,” he said.
Meanwhile officials in Kenya are investigating how he got the Canadian passport, which his legal team claimed last week had been seized by Kenyan officials.
Global Affairs Canada said Monday it is also investigating Miguna’s claims. The High Commission of Kenya in Ottawa remained closed for the Easter break on Monday.
According to his website, Miguna was granted asylum in Canada in 1988 after being detained for “championing multi-party democracy” in his homeland.
He gained a BA in political science and philosophy from the University of Toronto and was admitted as a member of the Ontario Bar in 1995. He has a law office listed in Etobicoke, Ont., and is the author of “Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya.”
He has had on-again, off-again relationship with Odinga, Kenya’s main opposition leader, spanning years.
Miguna was at Odinga’s side when he took an oath as the “people’s president” at the mock inauguration earlier this year. The government responded by arresting opposition politicians, including Miguna.
A Kenyan court on Thursday fined the interior minister and the national police chief for failing to appear in court to explain the treatment of Miguna.
Miguna’s second deportation came two weeks after a surprise meeting between Odinga and Kenyatta as they announced a new initiative to heal the East African nation after months of sometimes deadly election turmoil.
“He’s free to do what he wants,” Miguna said of Odinga’s apparent aboutface. “But as long as that cause does not involve electoral justice, we will part ways on matters of principle.”