Kenya Deports Miguna Miguna over Odinga ‘Swearing-in’

Kenya has deported opposition supporter and lawyer, Miguna Miguna, following his role in the unofficial swearing-in of opposition leader Raila Odinga as “the people’s president”, BBC reported on Wednesday.

Mr Miguna has boarded a flight to take him to Canada, where he is a citizen.

The government says Mr Miguna renounced his Kenyan nationality, which he denies.

Ahead of the mock inauguration, the government took Kenyan TV channels off air so they couldn’t broadcast it.

Mr Odinga boycotted last year’s election re-run, saying it would be rigged in favour of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

He and his supporters consider him the rightful leader of Kenya.

In August, Mr Odinga ran for president against Mr Kenyatta.

He lost, but the country’s Supreme Court said the election wasn’t transparent, prompting a re-run in October.

Mr Odinga declined to enter this race, saying nothing had changed, and Mr Kenyatta won 98% of the vote, with only 39% turnout.

But after letting Mr Kenyatta govern for two months, he held his unofficial swearing-in ceremony at Uhuru Park in Nairobi on 30 January.

During an oath signed and conducted by Mr Miguna, Mr Odinga declared himself “the people’s president”.

President Kenyatta took three TV channels off air, with only two resuming broadcasting this week - and only on subscription services, not free-to-air.