When elephants fight, it is usually the grass that suffers, but in this case, one elephant suffered more than the other. Controversial Kenyan political figure Dr. Miguna Miguna is notorious for raising dust on twitter and the media especially for his strong and sometime controversial political views.
Yesterday, prominent human rights Ugandan lawyer Nicholas Opiyo got caught up in a cross fire of verbal artillery from the controversial Kenyan figure. Miguna Miguna started a twitter thread yesterday narrating his ordeal at Berlin Brandenburg Airport where officials from Air France had just informed him that the Government of Kenya sent them a ‘red alert’ of how he couldn’t be flown into Nairobi.
While sympathizing with Miguna’s predicament, Nicholas Opiyo responded to his tweet urging him to fly to Uganda.
‘Fly to Uganda. There are many ways to get to Kenya once in East Africa,’ Opiyo tweeted.
However, Miguna didn’t take Opiyo’s courtesy in kind as he attributed to his thoughts to illiteracy.
‘You are also this illiterate? Do you not understand the import of the illegal red alerts? An alleged human rights activist like you is also suggesting that (A) @kaguta Museveni respects human rights. (B) a freedom fighter should hide and sneak into his country of birth like a rat?’ Miguna tweeted.
Nicholas Opiyo was however diplomatic in his response intimating that he had so much respect for Miguna and by no means suggested the things Miguna pointed to in his response. Opiyo however maintained that if Miguna’s goal is to get into Kenya, then by any means, legal or illegal, should he explore it. He however gave a disclaimer stating that if the goal was for Miguna to expose injustice, then, by all means, the standoff should go on.
Miguna was just not about to throw away his punching gloves. He charged back at Opiyo like an animal wounded;
‘Unless you are suggesting that I swim across the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, walk across the Sahara Desert, or swim upstream along River Nile, your original tweet made absolutely no sense. For a lawyer of your repute, you shouldn’t have tweeted before careful introspection’
He is an advocate of the High Court in Kenya. He is also a Canadian attorney, a Barrister and solicitor in Toronto, Canada. He served as a senior adviser to former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga from 2009 to 2011.
Miguna Miguna who has dual citizenship in Kenya and Canada was deported by the Kenyan on February 6, 2018 after the government claimed that he was not a Kenyan Citizen.