The High Court ordered three top officials to pay Sh200,000 each for disobeying orders to produce Miguna in court. Photo/CFM.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 30- The Government is planning to appeal the High Court order that fined Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi and two top security chiefs Sh200,000 each for contempt.
Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho said the decision to fine Matiangi, Immigration Principal Secretary Gordon Kihalangwa and Inspector General of police Joseph Boinnet is ‘erroneous and not based on law.”
“The Government believes Justice (George) Odunga’s decision was erroneous and not based on law. We will be moving to the Court of Appeal on Tuesday morning,” he told Capital FM News.
Justice Odunga issued the ruling on Thursday when the three officials failed to honour his summons and also produce controversial lawyer Miguna Miguna to court.
Miguna, who holds a Canadian passport, was later deported, but the Judge insists his earlier orders compelling the government to produce him in court still stands.
The fiery lawyer was first deported to Canada on February 6 after overseeing the mock swearing in of NASA leader Raila Odinga as the People’s President, but flew back on March 26 following a court order that compelled the government to facilitate his entry to enable him pursue a case he filed to challenge his deportation.
But on arrival at the airport, immigration officials said he declined to hand over his Canadian passport to be stamped and also tore documents he had been given to fill so as to regularize his status since his Kenyan nationality was nullified.
He was eventually deported again on Thursday to Dubai where he said he is marooned at the airport for lack of travel documents.
“I am marooned at the Dubai International Airport. I am waiting for my lawyers to communicate with me over the latest court orders and what steps they either have taken or intend to take for their enforcement. I reiterate that we must ensure that everyone, no matter how strong or weak, respects, upholds and obeys court orders and operates within the rule of law,” he tweeted.
Miguna has remained adamant that his Kenyan passport should be reinstated, even as human rights activists said he is to blame for not being allowed into the country for failing to cooperate with immigration officials.
“I intend to fly back to Nairobi as soon as possible. It’s my birthright, constitutional and legal right as well. I will never waive my rights because of an authoritarian and barbaric usurpers of power demand or expect that I do,” he tweeted Friday.
According to the Interior ministry, Miguna is deemed to have lost his Kenyan citizenship when he acquired Canadian citizenship when the old constitution prohibited dual citizenship.
The ministry stated that for Miguna to regain his lost citizenship, he will have to apply in line with the Constitution, but his lawyers are divided on the validity of that argument.
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