Former Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang’i has clarified that he did not run away from the country in 2023, as widely claimed.
Speaking on Tuesday, Matiang’i said he sought permission from President William Ruto to travel to the United Kingdom and it was granted.
He explained that the new Cabinet had not been sworn in at the time and they had been requested by President Ruto to stay on.
“When you wake up and find your passport and travel details are exposed to the public, published by a government agency and you did not leave the country secretly. You have actually done what you are supposed to do as a Cabinet Secretary because that time the Cabinet had not been sworn in.
“The head of Public Service had told us that the new head of state had requested that we stay in post until the new cabinet is sworn in, which means that to leave the country I had to go and talk to the new President and ask for permission to leave the country. I talked to the President and informed him the reasons for which I was going to the UK at that particular time,” Matiang’i narrated.
He said that it was frustrating and humiliating, waking up to his passport and travel details published online by a government agency.
The former CS said the claims that he had runaway on a cargo plane did not make the situation any better.
“When you have travelled in that kind of official manner and you get state agencies publishing your travel details and government officials or bloggers associated with the government claiming that you have run away in a cargo plane, what can be more humiliating and frustrating to you as an individual and nothing has happened, just a change of government?” he posed.
The travel details published by the department of Immigration Services said Matiang’i had left the country 10 days after the raid on his home, in February 2023.
Matiang’i, however, said that he was grateful to the then Interior CS Kithure Kindiki for stepping in to intervene.
Kindiki is currently Deputy President.
The former CS said Kindiki expressed himself responsibly and humanely.
“While on that I think it is fair to be objective and say I am very grateful to Prof Kithure Kindiki who was my immediate successor as the Cabinet secretary for of Interior because of all the people in that environment and context he is the only one who expressed himself very responsibly and in a manner that I thought was very humane at that time,” he said on Citizen TV.
