Exiled Kenyan lawyer Miguna Miguna wants the state and airlines to pay him over Sh1 million, which he used during his last aborted trip to Kenya.

In a fresh application filed on Tuesday at the Milimani law courts, Miguna through lawyer Adrian Kamotho says the state should be ordered to compensate him.

“I spent more than $10,000 (Sh1 million) and an equivalent amount in March 2018 and January 2020 when the state prevented me from entering Kenya,” he says. 

He says to date Air France has never refunded him the fare he paid for his Berlin-Nairobi round trip which he was stopped from taking.

“I spent $4,300 (Sh488,566) on air transport and $3400 (Sh386,308) on hotel accommodation,” Miguna says.

Further Miguna wants Foreign Affairs CS Raychelle Omamo jailed for six months for disobeying court orders issued in November last year directing him to be given an emergency travel document.

“I seek severe penal punishment including but not limited to custodial sentences of the contemnors in addition to having them ordered to jointly and severally compensate me for the losses incurred concerning the aborted trip to Kenya in November,” the application reads.

Miguna wants Omamo to purge the contempt by enabling him to obtain his emergency travel document from Kenya High Commission, Ottawa or the Kenya High Commission, Berlin.

He says if Omamo fails to comply with the orders then citizens should arrest her on sight and deliver her to Kamiti Maximum Prison.

Miguna says Omamo has refused to comply with the court ruling and order despite being aware of it, she has willfully disobeyed the same with impunity and demonstrated callous refusal to comply with it.

“The actions of the CS are in bad faith, contemptuous and a dangerous affront to the proper administration of justice,” he said.

Justice Hedwig Ong'undi had directed Omamo to ensure the order was complied with. 

The CS directed Miguna to obtain an emergency travel document from the Kenyan High Commission in Ottawa, Canada, or Berlin, Germany, within 72 hours.

Once in possession of the emergency travel document, Air France should allow him to board an available flight to Kenya with immediate effect.

In his affidavit, Miguna says he went to the Kenya High Commission in Berlin on November 22 after the court order but they declined.

The officials at the commission told him they had not been served with the physical copy of the order and said they were small people who would lose their jobs if they complied with the order.

“When I returned to the embassy on November 23 with physical copies of the order the High Commission in Berlin locked me outside the building and subsequently refused to receive a copy of the order that I presented,” the affidavit reads.

Miguna says one of them said they would not issue him with the emergency travel document until and unless they had received instructions from senior officials at the Ministry of Interior in Nairobi.

“The deputy head of missions laughed at me and pretended she was going to get the Head of Missions but never returned to the conference room,” Miguna says.

The lawyer says at no time did any of the Kenya embassy officials in Berlin ask me to complete or fill any forms nor did they provide me with any forms to complete.

After waiting for more than 96 hours in Berlin, beyond and expiry of the timeline set by the court he was compelled to return to Toronto.

“I was not physically, emotionally and financially able to continue undergoing the frustration and abuse inflicted upon me by them, staying in Berlin any longer under the circumstances would have been unreasonable and unsustainable,” he said. Edited by Kiilu Damaris, By Annette Wambulwa, The Star