Former Interior Cabinet Secretary — arguably Kenya's most powerful minister in multiparty democracy era — was for the last five years a marked man.
While he strode the country as the senior-most executive power-wielder besides President Uhuru Kenyatta in the last half decade, the writings of his reckoning were engraved on the wall.
For the nine years he served retired President Uhuru Kenyatta as Education and Interior Cabinet Secretary, he strode the country like a Colossus. Give him any tough task; nothing was too tough.
Like the famous Greek King Midas, he is popularly remembered for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold and success if you were on his side, but ashes if you were not.
The Uhuru power-man was doomed if President William Ruto rode to power and lucky had Uhuru's then-preferred choice, veteran Opposition chief Raila Odinga won the presidency.
During Uhuru's last term in office that was highlighted largely by his falling out with Ruto, Matiang'i enjoyed raw power and all the executive privileges as the de facto Deputy President.
He earned his place in Uhuru's inner circle as the President's 'Mr Fix It', becoming a key pillar of the Jubilee administration.
Matiang'i's latest woes — police raids at his Karen home and the twin probes by the DCI and the anti-corruption commission over false information and wealth, respectively — point to a besieged man.
Politicians say the events have exposed a bigger and obviously clandestine scheme by the Kenya Kwanza administration to persecute Matiang'i over his alleged role in trying to block Ruto's presidency.
As the then CS for Interior and Coordination of National Government and chair of a key Cabinet committee, Matiang'i had openly called Ruto a crook and pledged he would never be elected President.
At some point, despite being accused of usurping Ruto's power, he declared that the 2022 presidential elections were already predetermined and the winner known before the polls.
“I sit in Nairobi with these elders(Raila and Uhuru) every day and I can tell you that this, Mzee (Raila) has won this election, the elections are over and decided,” Matiang'i was quoted as saying as he hosted Raila in Mwongori High School days to the August 9 general election.
There are questions whether the President had decided to go after a man, who was seen as his biggest hurdle to becoming the country's fifth president, as a pawn or a sacrificial lamb.
The investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission into Matiang'i's wealth could be the starting point of the State seeking to freeze his accounts over allegations of amassing billions in wealth over the last nine years.
The EACC wants the Head of the Public Service Felix Koskei to avail Matiang'i's wealth declaration forms as a State officer when he joined the Cabinet in 2013.
The law requires that a State Officer files wealth declaration details with the government 30 days after assuming office and a month after exiting power. They are not made public.
The officers are required to update their wealth record after every two years including their assets — homes, vehicles, buildings and liabilities.
As the state lays the ground for a battle to recover Matiang'i wealth, some politicians say he is being used as a sacrificial lamb in the war between Uhuru and Ruto.
“There are some many other Cabinet Secretaries who campaigned against Ruto but we are not seeing them being targeted, they want to persecute Matiang'i,” Makadara MP George Aladwa said.
Aladwa admits that the Ruto administration is determined to deal with Matiang'i "squarely and even recover his wealth" to punish him for his powerful mandate in the Uhuru administration.
“It was a long time coming but I want to ask the government not to pursue the path of revenge,” Aladwa said.
Matiang'i's possible arrest and prosecution would not be wholly surprising, having emerged as a hate figure to influential people around Ruto during the Uhuru Kenyatta administration
The lowest point in their relationship came in August 2021 when Ruto was blocked from travelling to Uganda by junior immigration officials and had his security detail downgraded.
Matiang’i critics see his current personal troubles as getting a taste of his own medicine.
But it also feeds into the opposition narrative that the former Interior minister is just a pawn in a political game that seeks to put Uhuru under pressure to retire from active politics.
Uhuru has recently insisted that although he completed his tenure he is not tired and continues supporting Raila's Azimio coalition.
The former CS enjoyed massive power and authority over state agencies during his tenure at Harambee House, opening a fierce war front with Ruto and his allies.
Analysts argue that while President Uhuru was determined to propel Raila to the presidency after his acrimonious divorce with Ruto, it was Matiang'i who executed the plan with military precision.
Initially, there was a plan that President Uhuru would mentor Matiang'i as his successor in a joint ticket with ex-Health CS Mutahi Kagwe but the plan aborted after Raila insisted on running.
Matiang'i's elevation as the overseer of Cabinet affairs and superintendent of national development projects was the straw that broke the camel's back in relationship as his relationship with Ruto broke.
Matiang'i who had earned the trust of Kenyans after steering radical reforms at the ministries of ICT and Education, became the de facto second in command as he took over Ruto's roles.
He would traverse the country inspecting development projects, holding high-level Cabinet meetings and even defying state protocol in Ruto's presence to receive the President.
While the minister's-larger-than-life roles made the President's work smooth and built strong trust ties, Ruto remained strategically laid back as he plotted his ascension to State House.
Although Ruto occasionally protested publicly that Matiang'i had been handed his roles, the President's troops railed against the then DP, accusing him of abandoning his job for early 2022 politics.
At one point, Ruto responded furiously to President Uhuru over the latter's claims that his deputy had abandoned his job, saying his responsibilities had been usurped.
“Sorry, my boss. I feel your pain. Those you assigned my responsibilities [CS Matiang’i] and state project [Raila Odinga] have let you down miserably. They bungled our Big Four Agenda, divided our party and wasted our second term. Boss, I am available. Just a phone call away,” the DP tweeted in May 2022.
President Ruto's allies who took to social media to celebrate when police raided Matiang'i's home have been silent about other Cabinet Secretaries who campaigned for Raila in the last elections.
Some of the Css who openly campaigned for Raila and slammed Ruto include Peter Munya, Keriako Tobiko, Cecily Kariuki and Kagwe.
There are indications that Matiang'i, having been a member of the National Security Council — the country's superior security organ chaired by the President — is being targeted to bear the greatest responsibility.
Some members of the National Security Advisory Council were accused of visiting IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati at Bomas of Kenya and pushing for the manipulation of the results in favour of Raila.
Political analyst Alexander Nyamboga argues that Matiang'i is the sacrificial lamb even in the ongoing Ruto war with Uhuru and Raila. owing to his previous role in the elections.
'There is a feeling that Matiang'i was in the know in the whole issue of attempts to manipulate the poll results and the subsequent chaos at the Bomas of Kenya where security officers failed to contain the situation,” he said.
Raila has accused Ruto's administration of pursuing revenge and vengeance, saying the government is persecuting Matiang'i because of his support for Uhuru.
Speaking at Matiang'i's home after the raid, Raila claimed the CS should be treated with decorum having served the country diligently' as Interior Cabinet Secretary.
Raila also alleged plans by the government to manufacture evidence so they could arrest and charge the ex-CS.
During his Azimio rallies on Friday, Raila defended Matiang'i, saying he was ready to go down fighting for him.
“I have told Matiang'i to stand firm, I will die for him. We don't want them (Kenya Kwanza) to return the country to autocracy,” he said.
“I have seen they have started to crack down on Matiang'i and wanted to plant some things in his house so that they would arrest him, this is a man who served the country and should be respected,” he said.
Through an Executive Order, Matiang’i was also given the power to chair a committee of all Cabinet secretaries in his role of coordinating Government projects.
The membership of the committee included all Cabinet secretaries, Head of the Public Service and Attorney General.
For the first time, in the country's history, the President handed a minister expansive responsibilities in 2018.
This also meant that MPs would no longer be trooping to Ruto’s office to lobby for development projects.
How the mighty have fallen.
(Edited by V. Graham)