Miguna Miguna

Miguna Miguna is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.

He practices law as an attorney, a barrister and solicitor in Toronto, Canada.

He attended Apondos Primary School in Magina Village-Nyando before proceeding to the prestigious Njiiri School in Murang'a for his high school and then the University of Nairobi, where he became a student leader in 1986 and 1987.

He was detained by the Moi regime and expelled from the university in 1987 for championing multi-party democracy in Kenya.

Upon his release, he fled to the neighbouring Tanzania on foot where he was granted asylum by the UNHCR, staying there briefly before being granted asylum in the Kingdom of Swaziland.

Subsequently, he was granted permanent political asylum in Canada in 1988, where he continued to pursue his higher education.

Miguna served as the Coordinator for the Committee for Democracy in Kenya (CDK) from 1988 to 1994.

He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in political science and philosophy from the University of Toronto in 1990 and thereafter studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto, obtaining a Juris Doctor degree in 1993.

He was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1995.

He obtained a Masters of Laws (LLM) from the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in 2001.

He articled at the civil rights law firm of Charles Roach (Roach, Schwartz and Associates) in Toronto setting up his law practice where he stayed until 2007 when he returned to Kenya.

He was part of the ODM's campaign team during the 2007 general election.

He was admitted to the Kenyan Bar in 2008.

Upon his return to Kenya, he contested in the primaries of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)'s nomination for Nyando Constituency, but lost to Frederick Outa Otieno.

Miguna served as a senior adviser to former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga from 2009 to 2011.

Miguna was born in Magina, Kenya.

In March 2009, he was appointed as Prime Minister Raila Odinga's senior adviser on coalition affairs and concurrently served alongside Kivutha Kibwana as the Joint-secretary to the Permanent Committee on the Management of the Grand Coalition Affairs.

In 2010, some members from the Party of National Unity side of the coalition accused him of being a foreigner for holding a Canadian passport, as Kenyan law didn't recognise dual citizenship at the time he acquired Canadian citizenship, although the Kenyan constitution was changed in 2010 to allow for it.

They wrote, "While Mr. Miguna Miguna was born in Kenya, he has since become a citizen of Canada. Like all other expatriates working in the country, our laws require that Mr Miguna apply for and obtain the relevant permits to live and work in Kenya."

Miguna responded that he was a Kenyan citizen by birth and that he had never renounced his citizenship.

However, he did acquire Canadian citizenship at some point while in exile.

Miguna justified his actions by saying at the time, "When fleeing a dictatorial regime, one uses any means and even Mr. Odinga once used a Tanzanian passport."

In August 2011, he was accused of gross misconduct and was thereby suspended without pay.

The suspension was lifted on 29 December 2011 but Miguna rejected his reinstatement.

On 14 July 2012, he launched his first memoir titled Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya.

The book was very critical of Raila Odinga and purported to expose him as a charlatan.

It sparked protests from Odinga's supporters in Ahero who burned Miguna's effigy and mock coffin and thereafter sprinkled its ashes into River Nyando.

He was attacked whilst promoting his book at a hotel in Mombasa and had to be rescued by the police.

In September 2012, he terminated his life membership from ODM and announced his candidacy for Governor of Nairobi County in the 2013 gubernatorial election as an independent candidate.

He later on cancelled his candidacy.

He launched a sequel to his memoir in February 2013 titled Kidneys for the King: Deforming the Status Quo in Kenya.

Odinga, on his part, has declined to answer to the claims made in Miguna's books and did not sue Miguna for defamation, although since Odinga has been widely viewed in Kenya as a leading proponent of political reforms, his image could be badly sullied if the claims made in Miguna's book were accepted as true.

In an act of rejection of his former political boss, Miguna endorsed Uhuru Kenyatta, Odinga's rival, in the 2013 presidential election.

Kenyatta went on to win the poll, albeit amid accusations made by Odinga that the election was marred by poll fraud.

In March 2016, Miguna declared that he would be vying for the position of Governor for Nairobi as an independent candidate.

He unveiled a manifesto in August 2016.

The manifesto promised visionary leadership based on integrity, clear and progressive transformative policies, programs and a commitment for service delivery, job creation and infrastructure development.

Although he came in fourth in the 2017 Nairobi gubernatorial elections held on 8 August 2017, Miguna refused to concede defeat.

In the August 2017 presidential election, Odinga and his supporters alleged that Kenyatta's election victory was a fraud.

The Supreme Court of Kenya nullified the declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto as validly elected president and Deputy President, respectively.