The airline which barred self-styled National Resistance Movement (NRM) leader Miguna Miguna from boarding his scheduled Tuesday, January 7 flight to Nairobi has apologized.
Miguna took to Twitter to disclose that he had received an apology from Lufthansa Group which owns the airline that was to ferry him to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
"The Lufthansa Group which owns and operates Lufthansa, the airline that acquiesced to an illegal red alert by Uhuru Kenyatta and cancelled my flight LH590 to Nairobi on January 6, 2020, has formally apologized to me. I accept their apology," Miguna wrote on Thursday, January 9.
Lufthansa had cited instructions from the Kenyan government as the reason for denying him permission to board the plane.
"The Kenyan authorities require airlines to send passenger data to them in advance before every flight departs to Kenya. In the case of this passenger, they requested that Lufthansa deny boarding.
"However, we are trying to help him in whatever way we can," the airline wrote in response to queries from concerned Kenyans.
Miguna's lawyer, John Khaminwa had exclusively revealed to Kenyans.co.ke that they intended to initiate proceedings against Lufthansa and Air France, terming their actions as gross violations of international human rights laws.
After failing to board the Lufthansa LH590 flight, Miguna booked an Air France flight that was to leave Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris for Nairobi on the same day.
Despite successfully getting to his seat, he was soon informed by the airline's officials that he would have to disembark the plane due to a request from Kenyan authorities.
"The perception the airlines are giving the public is that Miguna is an international criminal, and they are tarnishing his name and we intend to proceed against them. Under the international human rights norms, that is unacceptable, they got money from Miguna," Khaminwa told this writer.
He described Miguna's frustrations as 'immoral' and blamed the state for disregarding multiple court orders issued in the exiled barrister's favour.
"What is happening to Miguna is immoral and we cannot be proud of it as a nation. The government spokesperson is misleading Kenyans. The supreme interpreter of the constitution is the judge not any government official.
"What are we to do? We are lawyers, we have court orders, we don't have guns or an army," a frustrated Khaminwa argued.
