“His Excellency William Ruto and First Lady Rachel Ruto request the pleasure of the company of Dr. Miguna Miguna to a Garden Party on the occasion of the Mashujaa Celebrations at State House Nairobi at 1 pm,” reads a second invite shared by Miguna.
That was what was in Kenya political news in October 2022 after William Ruto invited Miguna Miguna back to Kenya after he was deported in 2018 by the then Kenya government led by President Kenyatta with William Ruto as his DP.
The reason for that deportation and the brutality by the state on Miguna was, that he had sworn in Raila Odinga as the Kenyan president following the very controversial elections in 2017, where Kenya police and military forces then led by Matiang’i had unleashed violence on Kenyans even shooting and killing children in their own homes. Baby Pendo. Kenyans will remember that Kenyan little kid, a toddler who was shot by Kenyan police in her mom’s house. Long Live.
Here is Baby Pendo In World History. Fare Thee Well Baby Pendo.
After the swearing-in of Raila, Miguna’s home in Nairobi was raided by Kenya security forces and they destroyed his property before arresting him and ordering his deportation. When Miguna refused to leave the country because he was a citizen of Kenya by birth and provided his Birth Certificate to prove that, the Kenya security forces grabbed him, detained him in prison cells, and later took him to the airport and injected him with lethal disabling shots so that they could just load him to the airplane half dead.
It is a miracle how the airplane could accept a half-conscious person so it is likely he got the really bad injection while already on the plane. Miguna knows the details and talked about them to Kenyans but Kenyans saw the brutality of it all.
This is absolute savagery by state agents on a Kenyan citizen. It is not a story. Kenyans can see it live. This should never ever be accepted by Kenyans and I think it is time Kenyans helped Miguna take this case through the courts. He is going to win it. This is not a political issue. It is a human rights issue in our country.
Then things turned good for Miguna after Ruto took the reigns of power in Kenya after the August 2022 General Elections. The rest is history. Miguna was “invited” to his country by Ruto. That is great and fine.
Miguna arrived in Nairobi in a very jovial mood and that was good for him because he was thrown out of the country in total chaos and a direct attempt on his life with lethal injections by the Kenyan state on him at the airport. That is a criminal act against Miguna by the Kenyan state. It will not stand.
But a few problems started to emerge when Miguna arrived in Kenya after President Ruto invites. Miguna seemed to imply in his tweets and other communications and particularly his behaviour towards President Ruto that the “freedom of Kenya” that he has been talking about was all about him.
In State House, Ruto actually didn’t pay much attention to Miguna. He was just part of the furniture on that day but because Miguna had been very abrasive and in fact sometimes abusive towards Raila Odinga. As the campaign went on it was time for Ruto to appear to pull him in just for show.
The most telling part is when Miguna met President Ruto at Kisumu State House and they had that famous picture when Miguna thanked Ruto for apologizing to him and promising to help him sort out his cases against the Uhuru/Ruto Jubilee government and Miguna raised no question of other abuses of human rights in Kenya.
Miguna should have asked President Ruto not just to apologize to him but to also apologize to so many other Kenyans whose lives have been destroyed by various Kenya governments including the Moi government where William Ruto was a certified terrorist working with Moi to arrest and kill Kenyans opposed to the Moi one-party dictatorship.
I am not suggesting that it was Miguna’s job to ask Ruto to apologize for all political crimes committed against Kenyans.
I am saying Miguna at least had the moral responsibility to ask the president to address issues like the gruesome murder of one of Miguna’s fellow student activists like Karimi Nduthu who was killed in cold blood in his own house by the Moi gangs. They just killed human rights activists as simple as that for them.
I could just feel the bodies of Karimi Nduthu and many other student activists turning in their graves with anger as one of their close comrades in the battle to end Moi rule was embracing and literally kissing the very people who killed him in his own house just because they were opposed to the Moi regime.
Many of Miguna’s fellow students who led SONU in 1986 were outstanding Kenyan patriots. Many of them are still in the activist world for a better Kenya including Miguna Miguna.
I am talking about the likes of Wafula Buke who was the SONU chairman at that time and Miguna was part of the key leadership of the students’ movement at the time.
“I arrived at the university at a time when Prof Katama Mkangi and Prof Casper Odegi Awuondo had just been arrested. And so, academically speaking, the university was a disappointment. Some of my most memorable colleagues are Kaberere Njenga, now a medical doctor at Kenyatta National Hospital and Miguna Miguna” Wafula told Standard in an interview.
One thing I did after winning the Sonu chairmanship was to ban all tribal organizations as well as State House trip visits by student leaders for handouts. My stand saw me become the shortest-serving SONU Chairman, staying in office for only nine days, also described by some students as “nine days in Canada.” I was then arrested and taken to prison.
Kaberere Njenga then the Secretary General of SONU was a very unique student leader. He used to stage one-man demos with posters to demand that Moi allow multi-party in Kenya. He was also a medical student and at Nairobi University there were very few medical students who take up SONU leadership positions because for one they do most of their studies at a campus near the Kenyatta Hospital so they are not at the main campus where most SONU action take place.
When I met Kaberere in 1995 he was trying to finish his education and was refused a student loan to finish his studies.
The only other medical student activist and leader I can remember is Mat Ogonya (The Doc) who worked with people like me and David Murathe some years back before the new SONU leadership and he was quite a character.
These were true Kenyan patriots at very young ages in college at the University of Nairobi pursuing their careers in life.
Out of those student leaders Wafula Buke as he stated was sent to jail. Miguna and Munoru both went to exile to Canada and myself and a whole bunch of other Kenyan refugees who were in Tanzania were also sent to Canada when the Tanzanian government told the UNHCR they could not guarantee our safety after Kenyan spies came to Tanzania claiming to be Kenyans refugees.
It was in Canada where I personally met both Miguna and Munoru and we joined hands to develop human rights organizations to keep up the fight for democracy in Kenya.
Miguna moved back to Kenya in 2006 and he was one of Raila Odinga’s top leaders in ODM as they fought against Kibaki whom Raila himself helped to put in power in 2002 when an injured Kibaki had to go for treatment in the UK and Raila just went to war against Moi and his two boys he wanted to take the leadership after him, namely Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto.
In 2006 I worked very closely with Miguna to help ODM win the election. My job was to put up articles, and programs of action and at that time Miguna was writing for The Star which was on Ruto’s side and Ruto was with Raila in 2006 against Kibaki’s second term. So we got a lot of stuff done.
In the first Ruto visit to Nyanza Miguna joined hands with several disgraced leaders from Nyanza to launch what was supposed to be the liberation of Luo Nyanza from Raila and they were tying themselves to Ruto as the new leaders of the region.
It was essentially a nonsensical venture but Miguna and the new group genuinely thought they were the new leaders of Nyanza, never mind that none of them had ever done anything in terms of development even in their own villages where they are homeless strangers in their own communities.
This time around the Luo liberators including the new mob who run away from ODM to joining Ruto to get pennies for lunch meeting Ruto at State House realized that Ruto really is smarter than they thought because Ruto knows who the leaders in the region are and he was ready to work with them for the sake of the country.
The alleged new Luo leaders were reduced to trying so hard to walk next to Ruto everywhere and finally, Ruto was kind enough to open for them a UDA office in the region. That is basically it for the pretenders. Their story is pretty much done and gone.
So the time for the fake Luo liberators is over my message for them is to just eat what they can get now because the food could be withdrawn anytime now.
For those of them who want William Ruto to give them jobs, there is nothing wrong with that because these are Kenyans and if they are qualified they should get jobs. Miguna applied for the DPP job but the Ruto boys did not even shortlist him for an interview. That should tell where he is in the Ruto food chain.
Then we have the likes of Evans Kidero who was given a job by Ruto as CAS and the Kenyan courts dismissed those jobs as illegal. The bigger issue for Kidero now is that he is back in the courts for over Sh. 500 million and the best thing Ruto can do for him is to use the DPP office to get Kidero out off the hook. That is Kidero’s priority right now.
The ongoing trip by Ruto to Nyanza has created a completely new ball game.
Ruto has realized he has to work with Nyanza leaders to develop the region and the country. So the big issue here was that President Ruto was very focused on some very critical development projects in the region and that is a good thing for Nyanza governors, Ruto himself but most importantly for Kenyans who live in that part of the country.
This Kabonyo Fisheries and Aquaculture and Training Centre of Excellence is a groundbreaking investment in our country. Their plan is to produce 10 million fisheries a year to be released to Lake Victoria to help revive the supply of fish in the lake.
Nothing could be more important than that for the millions of people who depend on Lake Victoria and for the country’s economic development as a whole.
The greatest aspect of this project is that if President William Ruto admits to this project with real money and development plans, the Kisumu Governor Prof. Ayang Nyong’o with very serious connections can help bring international funding and other resources to ensure it is successful.
This is about creating food for Kenyans. It is about the much talked about climate change when local people can create their own food from natural resources like this massive lake which is part of our country. This is our rocket science as a country let’s make it work. Please.
But Mr. President and Governor, you did a great injustice to the 7 people murdered in Sondu. Who are those victims? Do they have names? Do they have families? Can Kenyans hear from the victims and their families? When?
The second big project President Ruto launched was in Homa Bay with Governor Gladys Wanga. This was another real big start of something that could create great economic opportunities for Homa Bay and for Kenyans. The possibilities here for development are endless.
Here is what part of Mfangamano Island looks like in Homa Bay. Grand, isn’t it? Open this place for Kenyans and the whole world. All Kenyans will be happy about it.
And don’t forget Ndere Island as part of the entire tourist system for the Lake Victoria tourist attraction network if Kenya can build it. The country could still be one. Why not. That is the question the NDC has to address. It can be done.
Welcome to Ndere Island. You are going to like it if you can get there. Soon is good.
As for the big boys, they will sort out their issues and Kenyans will define their direction. That is fair, to say the least.
