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Kenyan or Canadian? Mystery of Miguna Miguna’s citizenship


A 2010 interview with former Immigration Minister the late Otieno Kajwang on the citizenship of Miguna Miguna has been thrown into the center of the latter’s ‘deportation’ saga.

Back then, the late Kajwang had categorically stated that Miguna is a Kenyan citizen by birth.

At the time, Mr Miguna was a special adviser to the then Prime Minister Raila Odinga but the PNU coalition was questioning his citizenship and eligibility to hold a public office.

“I think they were playing it to embarrass the Prime Minister, to show that the Prime Minister is employing a Canadian citizen contrary to the law. Until I see evidence that Miguna Miguna at one time renounced his Kenyan citizenship, he is a citizen by birth,” Mr Kajwang said then.

DENOUNCED CITIZENSHIP

But in a strange and shocking turn of events, on Tuesday night, Miguna was hurriedly put on a KLM flight to Canada even with a pending order for him to be produced in court.

The Interior Ministry later claimed that Miguna had denounced his Kenyan citizenship years back.

The ministry’s spokesperson Mwenda Njoka said Miguna acquired Canadian citizenship and never bothered to reclaim his Kenyan citizenship in the legally prescribed manner.

He also claimed that Miguna failed to disclose that he had another country’s citizenship despite being a lawyer who should have known better.