For the past few days, Kenyans have been treated to the dramatic refusal by Kenyan government to grant self-declared National Resistance Movement (NRM) general Miguna Miguna re-entry into the country.
The self-styled lawyer landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Monday afternoon, but he has been denied entry after allegedly refusing to produce the passport he travelled in to Kenya.
His return to the country came after the court last month ruled he was free to come back to Kenya, following his dramatic deportation to Canada on February 6th over his active role in the mock swearing in of Opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Despite three court orders directing for his immediate release, Kenyan authorities refused to free him and, instead locked him at the Nairobi airport. This was after a failed deportation attempt on Monday night.
However, Miguna is not the only Kenyan who has gone through hell in the hands of Immigration authorities at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Sanjah Shah spent 13 months at the facility after he was rendered stateless.
Sanjah became stateless after falling foul of Britain’s citizenship laws. His wife, Rasmita, and son, Veer- both Kenyan citizens- used to visit him at the JKIA to deliver clothes and food.
Mr Shah had travelled to Britain from Kenya in May 2005 on a UK overseas citizen’s passport to visit his sister. Having been born in Kenya in 1962, a year before the country attained independence from Britain, he was considered to be a citizen of the UK and its Colonies.
In 2003, Kenya made changes in the law, giving him the legal right to apply to become a full UK citizen, but officials at Heathrow Airport became were suspicious of his one-way air ticket and denied him entry to the country.
He was flown back to Kenya, but the “prohibited immigrant” stamp on his passport forced immigration officers in Nairobi to also deny him entry into the country. At the time Kenyan law didn’t provide for dual citizenship.
In his attempt to enter into the UK, Shah had surrendered his Kenyan passport and his automatic right of entry. He decided to stay at the JKIA as his application for British citizenship was being processed.
After 13 months of endurance, his British passport application was formally approved and was free to travel to the UK.
