Kenyan authorities have deported a senior opposition figure in the latest move of a wide-ranging crackdown on political opponents and an intensifying confrontation with the judiciary. Miguna Miguna, who had been held in police custody in defiance of a court order demanding his release, was put on a flight to Canada via Europe at about 10pm on Tuesday.

“The illegitimate, despotic regime … forcefully placed me on a late night KLM flight from Nairobi to Amsterdam in flagrant violation of my constitutional rights, five court orders and common decency,” Miguna said in a statement on Wednesday. The lawyer was arrested last week in a dawn raid on his home in Nairobi after participating in a mock swearing-in ceremony for opposition leader Raila Odinga that was attended by thousands of people.

Government lawyers called the ceremony an act of treason. Three TV networks were closed down after broadcasting it, of which two have reopened. Fourteen opposition members have had their passports suspended. Judges had ordered the authorities to free Miguna, but instead he was presented in court in a small town 60km (37 miles) from the capital on Tuesday, to be charged with “being present and consenting to the administration of an oath to commit a capital offence”.(theguardian)…[+]