MIGUNA MIGUNA'S COMPREHENSIVE RESPONSE.

I wish to sincerely thank the more than five hundred Kenyans
and friends of Kenya of good will who attended my book launch on Saturday,
July 14, 2012 at the Intercontinental
Hotel in Nairobi. Thanks to you, it was
a splendid success!
Let me also express my gratitude to
thousands of people, who have sent
me short text messages, emails or
telephoned me to encourage me and
to express their unyielding support
before and after the launch.
I am issuing this statement from
Toronto, Canada, where my family and
I have just arrived and hope to start
enjoying a much-deserved and pre- planned summer holiday. Contrary to
malicious reports in the media, my
family and I booked our flights on May
24, 2012. I am not sure why some
people are implying that I should have
sought and obtained their permission
before traveling abroad. No one has a
right to my family privacy.
I am particularly disturbed by fake and
false media reports that I had fled into
exile. Some desperate political goons
for hire have even claimed that I have
‘fled from justice.’ There have been
suggestions that I have fled because of
law suits and potential arrest. By the
time I left Kenya, I had not been served
with any legal notices or law suits. In
any event, neither could have
prevented me from traveling.
I have earned a living practicing law for
more than 15 years. Therefore, a
lawsuit isn’t something I run away
from. Nor would I be scared of an
incompetent, misguided and
delusional political announcement to
the media by the director of public
prosecutions that I should record a
statement with the Kenya Police.
Keriako Tobiko has no mandate over
the International Criminal Court.
Instead of issuing threats to me -
someone he considers a potential
witness – the Witness Protection Act
compels him to provide me with
protection. Threatening me over the
media is a clear breach. Consequently,
I will treat his politically motivated
statement with the contempt it
deserves.
I boarded my flight at the Jomo
Kenyatta International Airport on July
16, 2012, like any other passenger.
Based on media reports, the Prime
Minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga, also
left for China almost at the same time
our flight departed. Was he also fleeing
into exile?
My book, Peeling Back the Mask is a
political memoir. It contains my life’s
narrative. It explains my background,
growth, maturity, experiences,
reflections and thoughts. It attempts to
record history. It also tries to unmask
the culture of impunity that has
bedeviled our country for more than
fifty years. For me, any debates,
discussions and further reflections that
result from the book’s publication can
only deepen our thoughts, expand the
democratic space, entrench the rule of
law and help broaden good
governance. That’s a good thing.
However, when I see ravenous mobs
burn my effigy, bury a coffin
symbolizing my death and threatening
me, my immediate and extended
family merely because I wrote a book
that they perceive to be critical of their
political deity even though, in all
likelihood, they might not have read; it
demonstrates a level of intolerance,
ignorance and base loyalty to certain
political personages in a manner that
cannot be positive.
Chillingly, as my effigy and ‘coffin’ were
being burnt and buried in a mock
funeral in Nyando by Raila’s fanatics,
the Prime Minister failed to see the
need to restrain his supporters. He
didn’t openly call for peaceful and
reasoned debates as we would expect
of someone claiming to be a
statesman.
As a mob was holding my funeral
procession, calling for my ‘deportation
to Canada’, threatening my brother and
his family, Raila’s intellectual groupies
were unleashing a coordinated assault
on my character and reputation
through the media. False allegations
are being dredged up in a desperate
but futile attempt to bolster the
ambitions and campaigns of a man
whose quest for power has reached a
dead end. But rather than conduct a
searing self-evaluation, they want to
hurl all the blame on me.
Raila Odinga is running for president. I
am not. As a person who has
occupied an exalted public position in
our society for decades; one who has
enjoyed immense privileges; and one
who is seeking even more power and
privileges; Raila Odinga must be
audited, vetted and weighed
thoroughly for his record in public life
before he can be found to have
satisfied the requirements for election.
If he doesn’t like the audit, he must be
prepared to cede ground and
relinquish his political ambitions. There
are no two ways around it. But he
cannot intimidate, threaten or beat us
into submission.
Two questions we need to ask Raila
are these: (a) If his supporters and
groupies can burn my effigy and mock
coffin and attack me viciously in the era of the new constitution that guarantees me the right to express myself fully including in book form merely on account that I have written a book they dislike because it is critical of him; what are they capable of inflicting if Raila were to become president? (b) Are the rights Raila proudly claims he fought for only meant for his supporters and sycophant