No government agency has issued a ‘red alert’ stopping international airlines from flying lawyer Miguna Miguna back to Kenya, Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho has told the High Court.
Dr Kibicho stated that the exiled lawyer should get his travel papers at the Kenya High Commission in Ottawa, Canada, so as to be allowed to re-enter the country.
“I confirm that no government agency has issued any so-called red alert to Air France and Lufthansa Group (operating as German Airlines) in relation to Miguna’s travel to Kenya,” Dr Kibicho told the High Court in Milimani, Nairobi, yesterday.
Dr Miguna, who was deported in March 2018 after swearing in ODM party leader Raila Odinga as ‘the People’s President’, has twice unsuccessfully tried to return to Kenya.
In his latest attempt on November 16, 2021, he was blocked from boarding Air France at Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport following a fresh alert that he said had been issued by the Kenyan government.
His lawyers, led by Dr John Khaminwa and Law Society of Kenya president Nelson Havi, went to court seeking orders that the alerts be lifted.
The lawyers are also seeking a mandatory order that Air France should let Dr Miguna board their “immediate next available flight to Paris, France, en route to Nairobi, Kenya, and disregard any red alert or restriction by the Government of Kenya”.
Dr Kibicho said the government has no intention of allowing Dr Miguna back using the national identity card.
The PS argues that Dr Miguna was travelling on a Canadian passport as a Canadian citizen and, therefore, he requires a visa to be allowed to board a flight to Kenya.
Justice Hedwig Ong’undi will rule on the mater on November 22, 2021. BY DAILY NATION