Below is the biography of the controversial Canada-based Kenyan politician Miguna Miguna. In this biography, I will explore Miguna’s Profile, family, News and YouTube channel. I will also examine his quotes, book, and website.
Miguna Miguna Family
Although there is scanty information regarding Miguna’s marital status, what is clear from media sources indicates that the lawyer cum politician is a married man with three teenagers.
All his immediate family members stay abroad in Canada. His children pleaded with him to return home before his controversial arrest and deportation to Canada in January 2017.
Miguna Miguna Wife
It’s about 16 years now since Miguna married his lovely wife, Jane Miguna. While speaking to Macleans Magazine, she narrated the ordeal his husband went through in the hands of ruthless Kenyan security agencies after being detained for alleged threat to the country’s security.
She complained about how they failed to accord him a fair hearing in the court of law as demanded by the Judge.
She was also worried after not hearing from him for a week after the Kenyan police detained him. This shows how united and caring his wife is.
Miguna Miguna News
News circulating in print and social media in Kenya today including the Kenyan NAIROBIBUZZ Magazine claims that the purported National Resistance Movement (NRM) General plans to return to Kenya after being deported to Canada in January 2017.
The fiery NASA activist is heard announcing that he will come back in Kenya on 26 March 2017, less than one month after his dramatic deportation saga.
But making his comeback, he plans to tour European cities and the United States to popularize NRM’s agenda, the alleged civil disobedience branch of NASA coalition.
His return will mark the end of his expedition to two Germany and England capital cities and across six states in the US.
Miguna Miguna CV
This is a brief CV articulating Miguna’s personal life and achievements:
Early Life
Miguna is Kenyan columnist and author who born in 1963 in Magina village, Kisumu District. He is also a Kenyan High Court advocate and a Canadian barrister and solicitor.
In 2009-2011, he served as a senior adviser Raila Odinga who by then was the Prime Minister of Kenya.
Before practicing law privately, Miguna articled at a firm known as Charles Roach and in 2007, he decided to return to Kenya.
Education Background
Miguna joined the University of Nairobi in 1986 to study Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and political science.
He was elected student leader, and in 1987, he was arrested together with his colleagues by the Moi regime for political and social activism.
According to information gathered by the Kenya intelligence, Miguna and others were detained for advocating for multi-party democracy in the country.
Immediately he was let free, he fled on foot to Tanzania, a neighboring country to Kenya before moving to Swaziland where he stayed shortly.
Consequently, the Canadian government granted him an asylum status on political ground.
While in Canada, Miguna pursued higher education in the Bachelor of Arts in political science and philosophy and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1990.
He studied and graduated with a Juris Doctor (JD) in 1993.
In June 2001, he graduated with a Masters of Law (LLM) at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School.
He graduated with distinction in both the undergraduate and LLM degrees.
In 1995, he was admitted to the Ontario Bar. In 2008, he was also admitted to Kenyan Bar.
Professional Career
Miguna’s personal website states that he is not only a practicing lawyer but also an ADR consultant and mediator, a prolific commentator on political, social and cultural issues, a political analyst, and a published author.
In 2009 he was appointed as advisor to Raila Odinga, the then Prime Minister. He held this position until August 2011 when he was suspended for gross misconduct.
Although he was reinstated after threatening in court that he could spill beans on all illegal transactions in the Office of the Prime Minister, he chose to quit the job and critic Raila from outside his administration as a common politician.
Political Career
When he returned to Kenya from Canada, the controversial Miguna did not wait for the dust to settle before he contested in the nomination primaries for Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) for Nyando Constituency. Unfortunately, he was defeated by Frederick Outa Otieno.
After losing in the primaries, he again secured a membership position in the ODM campaign team of the 2007 general election.
After that, the former Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Amollo Odinga appointed him as his senior adviser in March 2009 on coalition affairs.
He concurrently served in this position alongside Kivutha Kibwana as the Permanent Committee’s Joint-secretary on the Grand Coalition Management.
Three and a half years later in August 2011, Miguna was suspended without pay for alleged gross misconduct.
On 29 December 2011, the suspension was lifted, but he declined his restoration to office.
To hit back at the former Prime Minister of Kenya, Miguna launched a memoir on 14 July 2012 called “Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya.” This was his first memoir. In it, he virulently criticized the leadership capacity of Prime Minister and professed to depict Raila as a swindler of public resources and also as a charlatan.
Odinga’s supporters from his backyard in Luo Nyanza, particularly in Ahero violently protested against this book and went ahead to burn the author’s effigy. They also used mock coffin to demonstrate against Miguna.
This objection later came to be known as River Nyando because the ashes from his effigy were sprinkled into River Nyando. His attempt to promote this book to target readers in Kenya was not easy either.
While in a Hotel in Mombasa, supporters of the former Prime Minister from this region attacked Miguna only to be saved by the Kenya Police.
The pressure was too much for him, and he couldn’t withstand it leading to his resignation from ODM in September 2012 as a life member.
Soon after leaving ODM, he declared his interest to aspiring for the Governor seat in Nairobi County as an independent candidate in the gubernatorial election held in March 2013.
However, his candidacy never matured as he, later on, canceled his plans.
The defiant Miguna did not stop his political quest for entrenching real democracy and political dignity in Kenya.
To satisfy his ego, he published his second memoir titled “Kidneys for the King: Deforming the Status Quo in Kenya” in February 2013.
In this book, he even heaps more scorn on Odinga, enumerating several alleged misdeeds Raila did while office as the Prime Minister.
However, reading Miguna’s move in from far, Raila remained mum thereby denying the controversial author the limelight he sought by writing the memoir.
Contrary to the former Prime Minister’s public image of being a reformer of Kenyan politics, the book depicted Raila among others, as a dictator who had no room for assuming the top office in the land.
The book could be very damaging to Odinga’s political career if all the targeted readers could believe in its contents.
Unfortunately, for Miguna, his intention was not realized.
Supporters of Raila, as usual, dismissed the claims in the memoir rendering the book irrelevant.
To hit the nail on the coffin, Miguna went ahead to endorse Raila’s main political rival, Uhuru Kenyatta for the 2013 presidential election that were just around the corner.
If Miguna won or not, Odinga lost the contest to Uhuru albeit amid allegations by Raila that the poll process was a fraud.
Miguna revived his ambition of becoming the governor of Nairobi County in 2016 when he announced that he would vie for the seat but as an independent candidate.
In August 2016, he unveiled his manifesto to the target electorate.
In his manifesto, he made a leadership promise that to himself and to some Nairobians was a visionary in the sense that it made promises upon his assumption of the governor’s office.
He promised among others that his administration would be based on clear policies, infrastructure development and job creation, integrity, and developing programs committed to offering quality service.
To many Kenyans, his promise could not be delivered.
As a result, he was thrashed in the August 2017 gubernatorial election only coming in the tenth position.
Miguna Miguna Quotes
There are many quotes made by Miguna, the well-known controversial lawyer and author of many articles and books. Here are two recent hilarious quotes from him:
- While responding to detractors in 2016 on Facebook Post, he said “I’m vying as an independent candidate in Nairobi City County. I’m not vying as a representative of any ethnic group. I’m going to be the Governor of all patriotic Kenyans. I’m going to be the Governor of all tribes, religions, faiths, races and political persuasions.”
- In 2012, while referring to the level of corruption entrenched in Kenyan politicians and government during the launch of his book, he stated “Every single leader here, I can take to The Hague. Mark my word. I have it right here! And I am saying, Come, baby come!”
