Miguna Miguna has a long history of being an activist, an idealist and being anti-establishment. And those attitudes landed him – against his will – on a flight bound for Canada, far from Kenya where the agitator has been targeted by the government.
From his childhood he often defied anything he considered wrong, unfair and failing to live up to his high ideals.
At the age five, the then lanky fire-breathing Miguna stood up to his mother in front of a priest when she tried to name him Otieno. Among the Luo community, it was a default name for all male children born at night.
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According to the Canadian-trained barrister, the name was far too common and in his wisdom would make him merely another commoner in the village. He wanted a unique name to set him apart from the rest of the boys.
In his own political memoir Peeling Back The Mask, Miguna compares his childhood life to that of an eagle, a noble bird that did not hang out with chickens.
“I told the priest, firmly, that I wouldn’t accept the name [Otieno],” Miguna writes in his book.
“The priest was taken aback because no other child had ever refused a name proposed by the parents. But I stood my ground. My mother asked me to choose what I wanted to be called. So, I chose Joshua Miguna Miguna.”
The outspoken politician and commentator, who commissioned NASA leader Raila Odinga’s oath on January 30, also described his ‘rebellious’ childhood in his book Disgraceful Osgoode and Other Essays.
“How could I, a good Christian boy, be so rebellious? My parents suddenly noticed the dramatic changes, which had taken place; my devotion to African attire, the fact that I refused to go to church, etcetera.”
went to exile
His always strong opinion delivered in entertaining ideological arguments has won him both friends and foes.
The defiance and speaking truth to power pushed Miguna into deep trouble with the dictatorial Moi regime, which was cracking the whip on any call for multiparty democracy.
He went into exile in Canada when Nairobi became too hot and he refused to compromise on what he believed to be wrong.
The self-styled “General” of the proscribed National Resistance Movement describes himself as incorruptible. He refused to take a plea on Tuesday to charges of administering Raila’s oath and being an NRM member.
The Kenyan government calls the oath-taking treason and said those abetting it also committed a crime.
In a video that circulated widely on social media on Tuesday, Miguna is seen on his way to court in Kajiado. He is wearing his signature white cap and he is sandwiched between armed uniformed officers. He can be heard saying, “[I’m] fearless, they can do what they want.”
Very few people in Kenya dare to take on Miguna in a debate, especially on television. His acerbic rhetoric and a penchant for hitting hard – sometimes below the belt – has had him banned from two television shows.
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The few people to whom he has opened his heart describe the now heavy-set lawyer as a lover of perfection, a workaholic, a man who keeps his word and meets deadlines. He won’t tolerate laziness.
the miguna sting
Miguna is never shy to demonstrate his intellectual prowess. In fact, his former principal at Onjiko High School described him as “self-confident”, an understatement, in his school leaving certificate.
“There wasn’t anybody in ODM, at his [Raila’s] office or around him, with the writing skills I had. Anyang’ Nyong’o and Ababu Namwamba could write very well and they did regularly.
“The problem was that they didn’t have what my friend and CEO of the Star Newspaper calls ‘the Miguna Sting’. Unlike many Kenyans, I’m not good at sports or athletics and I can’t sing…The gift God gave me was the ability to coin words and phrases in a manner that drives a point home. As some other friends have said, ‘Miguna is a gifted wordsmith’,” he narrates in Peeling Back The Mask.
Lawyer Silas Jakakimba, with whom he worked at Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s office at Agip House, had this to say, “The man is extremely deep, witty, honest, intelligent with probably seven senses and believes so much in social justice, equity, human rights, fairness and all attendant ethical attributes.”
“I shall never, ever work with or for Raila Amolo Odinga again here on earth, in heaven or in hell...If Raila was in possession of the only key to the door to heaven, I would ask to be directed to Hell, before running there with all my strength.”
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