Why Raila declined to sue Miguna Miguna for defamation - Lawyer Mwangi

Lawyer Paul Mwangi has shed light on why Raila Odinga never pursued defamation suits against his critics, including his former aide Miguna Miguna, saying the former Prime Minister believed that personal battles should never come before national unity.

During an interview on Citizen TV on Wednesday night, Mwangi, who served as Raila’s legal adviser for 14 years, said the opposition leader often faced pressure from close allies to seek legal redress against individuals who made defamatory remarks but consistently rejected the idea.

He recalled the period after the 2017 general election when Miguna wrote harsh and defamatory statements about Raila, a time that prompted intense debate within Raila’s inner circle on whether to sue.

“By the time it came out, he was outside the country, and there were already many people with different ideas of what we should do. Some people wanted a big defamation suit. Others were lobbying me to convince him to file it,” Mwangi said.

“There were even people who wanted to use the Office of the Attorney General to have me arrested and charged with criminal libel. I thought about it and I said no—my advice to him would be that we are not going to sue.”

Mwangi said he later decided to document Raila’s position in an opinion piece that ran in the Sunday Nation, explaining the reasons behind the decision not to sue Miguna.

“I told him, we need to explain the reasons, but I don’t want you involved because then it might appear as if you were defending yourself personally,” Mwangi said.

“He called me the next morning and said, Okay, fine, you proceed. So I sent the article to the Nation, and on Sunday, it ran, there was a news item and a big op-ed explaining why Raila would not sue Miguna.”

According to Mwangi, the only instance Raila came close to suing was when then-Garissa Township MP Aden Duale, now Health CS, made remarks that were seen as defamatory. Even then, he said, the process never advanced beyond the initial filing.

“How many times have we ever sued? None. We only sued Duale once, but we never served the summons. So technically, it’s zero,” Mwangi noted. “We only sued to make a point, and even then, we didn’t sue the media. Never.”

He added that Raila viewed lawsuits against critics as a threat to freedom of expression and saw tolerance as part of public service.

“We compared and concluded: you’ve never sued the media, don’t break that. And then we said, look, whatever has been said is wrong, but this is freedom of expression. I am a public officer, and that comes with the territory. You will face defamation, you will face criticism—but it comes with the job," Mwangi recounted.

Reflecting on Miguna’s time as Raila’s aide, Mwangi described him as one of the most dedicated people in the Office of the Prime Minister.

“Maybe I need to say this, because I don’t think many people understand. The work Miguna did at that time, nobody else could have done,” he said.

“When he joined the Office of the Prime Minister, there was a very deliberate attempt to lower Raila’s stature as Prime Minister. And for the four years he was there, if there’s anyone who diligently fought to uphold the dignity of Raila Odinga as Prime Minister, it was Miguna.”

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Mwangi said Raila’s ability to stay calm in the face of personal attacks defined his leadership style, noting that he always stood by the principles of free speech and restraint even when targeted unfairly.