MIGUNA GETS HOSTILE RECEPTION IN HIS HOME CITY
By MAURICE ALAL.
Miguna Miguna of the controversial book'' PEELING BACK THE MASK'' got a rude reception in Kisumu city when a charged audience shouted him down forcing the former aid to Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga to cut short his speech.

Miguna had to be escorted back to his hotel room by heavily armed security personnel after the audience began heckling him while others bayed for his blood over what they claimed was a scheme hatched by Raila's political rivals to undermine him in his quest for the country's presidency.

Miguna had successfully addressed the gathering of an estimated 500 people for about half an hour when all hell broke loose in the lake side city, a few kilometers from his native home at Ahero in Nyando district of Kisumu county.

It was Miguna's first visit to the city to popularize his controversial book which has stirred political sentiments from across the divide in the East African nation since it was launched in July this year in Kenya's capital Nairobi.

During his speech, Miguna who advised Raila on coalition matters for close to four years castigated his former boss claiming he was surrounded by corrupt individuals with whom he worked closely while serving in the PM's office before he was unceremoniously kicked out in August last year.

'' I made Raila what he is today. I wrote every speech he read and developed strategies which he continues to use to date'' he asserted.

It appeared his audience who sat patiently while listening to his remarks did not like the persistent attacks aimed at the PM and Orange Democratic Movement Party (ODM) which enjoys huge following in country currently going by various opinion polls.

Tempers flared when Miguna claimed that people of Luo Nyanza his native tribe where Raila hails from have failed to vet those they elect into political offices every five years regardless of their under-performance.

'' You have been reduced to mere voting machines similar to robots without evaluating capabilities of such people,'' he remarked.

It was at this point when things turned chaotic leaving the security personnel in the hall with no options but to hurriedly whisk him away to safety.

All the while crowds kept building up outside the hotel as word spread fast about Miguna’s presence.

It took quick intervention by the hawk eyed security officers led by the local district commissioner, Willy Cheboi to save the situation from degenerating into an all out confrontation.

As the crowd grew larger outside, the police had to use the back door of the posh hotel in a dramatic escape bid similar to those seen only in Hollywood movies.

As the police car sped off with Miguna sandwiched between two heavily armed and mean looking police officers, the crowds refused to disperse even after the local police boss pleaded with them to do so.

A chase car full of anti riot contingent was in hot pursuit with their guns cocked as Miguna's police escape car vanished.

However it was not immediately clear whether Miguna's planned promotion of the book would continue in the region going by the hostile reception he met in Kisumu on Thursday.

The incident comes barely a month after his effigy was burnt by furious demonstrators at Ahero, his home town. This was to demonstrate their anger against the book which largely projected Raila and officers in his office as corrupt and not worthy of leadership.

Miguna on his part has since dared those who feel offended by his book to meet him in court where he will battle it out with them.
END.