Thread by @Owaahh

In trying to repair what's wrong with KE, there are many conversations we need to have. The exiling (not deportation) of Miguna was wrong. It was, however, the actualization of an internal war ODM made against him about 9 years ago.

A thread.

In "Peeling Back the Mask", Miguna talks about that time in January 2010 when PMU came after him on the issue of citizenship. The argument then was pretty much the same as it was the week. First page.

In the second excerpt, he says he finally realised that it had been his colleagues at ODM fighting him all along.

Then mentions the critical case of Mahamud Sirat who filed an election petition for the Wajir South seat in 2008 and found himself exiled to Australia.

At the time ODM controlled the Immigration Ministry (hence why a dead man was dragged into the most recent exiling). It was both a moral and legal argument, but something else was the actual trigger, a by-election in Wajir.

For context, Mahamud Sirat eventually won the petition in 2010 and served as Wajir South MP from 2010 to 2013. He lost the two subsequent elections. As far as I can tell, he was still fighting the citizenship issue as late as 2015.

The citizenship case came up after he filed a petition against the election of the KANU candidate, Abdirahman Ali Hassan. Even before the case was decided, Kajwang' exiled him to Australia. But, a short time before, had given a Kenyan passport to Miguna.

There are several points from Miguna's book, the most important one being that after he fought off the claim in 2009/2010, he was told by the PNU side that the info had come from ODM all along. The ridiculousness of this particular exiling is suspect as well

The government of the day, whichever it may be, is keen on using such info. The colonial government used it against Mbiyu Koinange (and Sereste Khama and Kabaka Mutesa). Another huge case was that of Sheikh Khalid Balala in 1994.

The nations that consider themselves in power in KE consider their citizenship rights absolute, but peripheral nations (coast, NFD, for example) are gray areas on what, or rather whom, being a Kenyan is.

What happened to Miguna is a reminder that the colonial playbook is still in play, your own colleagues will set you up and yes, despite what any law says, you can be exiled from your own country. You can actually be shipped out if you become too much.

The deeper conversation we must have is what exactly citizenship is. Not what the law says, but what we as a society believe it to mean. What does it mean to be called a Kenyan in February 2018? Other than family history, what does it really mean? Who determines who a Kenyan is?

Those gray areas on citizenship were used against Sirat less than a decade ago, and have been used on Somalis since independence. Sometimes, being a Kenyan used to be determined by a vaccination scar's placement on your left hand.

Miguna's case of exiling (again, not deportation) should be an opening point on this. What makes a Kenyan? Are you a Kenyan only when you don't poke everyone in the eye and write salacious things about your former/current boss?

When we finally pay (as we will, fellow taxpayers) for Miguna's illegal detention without trial and illegal exiling from his home, we need to remember how flimsy who exactly entails a Kenyan is. Your political leanings won't matter then. Actually, both BIG sides are guilty.

The citizenship/deportation issue was actually one of Jaramogi's big wins in the early '60s, making sure Kenya rid herself of Génocidaires like Ian Henderson (who went on to become the 'Butcher of Bahrain') because the Jomos of this world didn't mind them staying.