Deputy President, William Ruto, has revealed his role in the elevation of Fred Okengo Matiang’i to the position of Cabinet Secretary.
Speaking at his official residence in Karen, Nairobi on Thursday, September 2, while meeting Tanga Tanga-allied leaders from the larger Nakuru County, the DP stated that he was instrumental in the vetting of Matiang’i after he and President Uhuru Kenyatta clinched the presidency in 2013.
President Kenyatta and Ruto first won the State House race in 2013 after beating then National Super Alliance (NASA) presidential candidate and Orange Democratic Leader, Raila Odinga, in a hotly contested poll. Odinga disputed the election but his petition was thrown out by the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice (Rtd.) Willy Mutunga.
Upon clinching the presidency in 2013, Kenyatta and Ruto unveiled a list of twelve Cabinet Secretary nominees in the month of April in which Matiang’i was nominated and subsequently appointed as the CS for Information, Communication and Technology (ICT).
He would later be moved to the Ministry of Education (2015) and then the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government in 2017 upon the demise of then CS Major Gen. (Rtd.) Joseph Nkaissery.
The Deputy President says that together with the President in 2013, they interviewed Matiang’i before appointing him into their team.
“In 2013, the President and I interviewed Matiang’i for the Cabinet post. We saw him as a good fit and gave him a job,” said the DP who addressed the leaders in the Swahili dialect.
He, however, accused Matiang’i of becoming arrogant but expressed willingness to work with him on condition that he goes back to his old self.
“The problem is that after we employed him, he has now grown to be very arrogant and full of himself. But if he stops that, we can work together and progress as Kenyans.”
Ruto told the leaders converging at his residence that the CS - who is largely viewed as President Kenyatta’s right-hand man - has created rifts and caused friction amongst leaders in the ruling party.
The DP accused the Interior CS of antagonising his relationship with the President, saying that the two leaders have always been working in harmony until the March 2018 handshake happened.
Ruto, who remains an active member of the Jubilee Party despite being accused of informally joining the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), went ahead to accuse a section of senior employees of the Office of the President or antagonising the relationship between him and Kenyans by painting a wrong picture of him by carrying out a ‘misleading’ lifestyle audit.
He, however, poked holes into the audit, making jokes on the listed assets and revealing others that may have been omitted intentionally or unintentionally by the Interior CS.
“Let them add my Ksh400k shares held at a leading Telco, my 200,000 chicken and a few other shares at the national carrier,” Ruto said in Swahili amid cheers and applause from the Nakuru leaders under the captainship of Senator Susan Kihika.
The relationship between the DP and his boss continues to worsen by the day, with the President accusing the DP of failing to support his unity agenda and starting his succession campaign early.
The DP, however, on his part accuses the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader, Raila Odinga, of coming in between him and Kenyatta with an aim of bringing down the Jubilee Party.
Both Ruto and Odinga are in the race to succeed Kenyatta when the country goes to the poll on Tuesday, August 9, 2022.
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