CANADIAN STRANDED IN DUBAI.
NAIROBI, KENYA •AKenyan opposition figure who holds Canadian citizenship claims he was drugged and forcibly deported from Kenya to Dubai and that he has been “marooned” at the airport there.
A Kenyan court on Thursday fined top officials including the interior minister and national police chief for failing to appear in court to explain the treatment of Miguna Miguna, who was targeted amid lingering election tensions.
Earlier this year he stood beside opposition leader Ralia Odinga during a mock inauguration to protest President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election.
Miguna later was deported to Canada but a Kenyan court ordered authorities to allow him back into the country. His attempt to return this week ended up with him being detained in an airport toilet for more than a day.
Miguna posted statements on social media Wednesday saying he had been “detained inside a tiny and filthy toilet” in one of the terminals.
“I have not eaten. I have not taken a shower. I have not been given access to my lawyers, family members and physicians.”
Miguna also said in a Facebook post that authorities broke into the airport toilet and forcibly injected him with a substance and he passed out. He said he regained consciousness when the Emirates flight arrived in Dubai.
Miguna says he was born in Kenya and holds Kenyan and Canadian citizenship but authorities have disputed his Kenyan status.
In a post on social media, he said the airline that flew him to Dubai, 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.’ ”
He added that “Air Emirates has refused to return me to Nairobi. It argues that the illegitimate Uhuru Kenyatta government has threatened to deny them landing rights if they fly with me to Nairobi.”
The airline did not respond to requests for comment.
On Wednesday, lawyer James Orengo said police at the airport roughed up lawyers and forced them to leave when they tried to serve the court order to release Miguna.