Kenyan opposition politician ‘detained in airport toilet’
KENYA - A Kenyan opposition politician says he has been detained in a toilet at the country’s main airport since Tuesday after he refused to be deported.
Miguna Miguna was previously deported to Canada on 6 February in a crackdown on politicians who attended a mock inauguration of the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, to protest against the re-election of the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Later in February a court ordered that Miguna’s Kenyan passport be restored and he be given safe passage back into the country.
When he tried to return on Monday, Miguna was denied entry at Jomo Kenyatta airport and plainclothes officers tried to hustle him on to an Emirates flight bound for Dubai, witnesses said. Miguna protested and the attempt to put him on the flight failed.
On Tuesday Miguna’s lawyer, Nelson Havi, that his client was “currently detained in a toilet at Terminal 2 arrivals and has been denied access to his lawyers”.
After his lawyers went to the high court, a judge ordered Miguna’s release, stating that he was being held “incommunicado”, and directed him to appear in court on Wednesday morning.
Early yesterday, Miguna saying he remained “detained inside a tiny and filthy toilet” in the airport.
The bizarre incident comes two weeks after , after which they announced a new initiative to heal the east African country after months of sometimes deadly election turmoil. Odinga had argued that Kenyatta lacked legitimacy because his initial 8 August re-election victory was nullified by the supreme court over “irregularities and illegalities.”
(The Guardian)