Matiang'i chides Ruto on flopped 'state capture' probe

Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has publicly challenged President William Ruto’s administration for failing to fulfill his promised inquiry into alleged ‘state capture’.

He dismissed the probe, which was among Ruto’s campaign pledges, as a “phantom” and “one of the big lies” Kenya Kwanza honchos used to gain power.

Making his first major remarks on the aborted investigation, Matiang’i expressed frustration that three years after Kenya Kwanza accused the previous Jubilee government of operating a ‘deep state’, no report had ever been published.

“I said it was a phantom. It was one of the big lies that were being told at that time,” Matiang’i told TV 47 in an interview on Thursday.

“Those who accused us of being part of the deep state are now in government. How comes that 36 months later, they have never published what that deep state was all about?”

President Ruto, then as deputy president, and his allies consistently claimed there existed a deep state out to rig elections and frustrate his team in the run-up to the 2022 elections.

They consistently alleged that then president Uhuru Kenyatta, Matiang’i and senior security officials were part of a shadowy ‘deep state’ network.

They alleged that the group was manipulating government operations for personal and political gain, including plans to rig the election.

Matiang’i said he had been prepared to testify before the promised commission of inquiry, alongside Uhuru and the late Chief of Defence Forces General Francis Ogolla, to clear his name and counter the accusations.

“We want to go before it and put our case and tell the country what we know about others… and there were so many accusations that were made that time,” he said.

He singled out one of the most serious allegations that senior government officials, including himself, were holding clandestine meetings at a hotel on Thika Road to plot Ruto’s assassination.

Matiang’i recalled being harassed and compelled to record statements over the matter. “How is it that those who were accusing us have the security system and are the leaders, have never published reports about that assassination attempt?” he asked.

“This vindicates what I said at that time. Why can’t they put that information in the public domain? You can even publish a DCI report stating what happened.”

The former powerful Cabinet Secretary, now out of government, argued that his current distance from power makes it the perfect time for his accusers to release any evidence they claimed to possess.

“Now that I am nowhere near power, why not publish the information?” he challenged.

A State Capture Commission of Inquiry was in the works to probe claims of abuse of power right after the election, but the same is yet to be seen.

At that time, government sources intimated that a legal framework was being cobbled together to anchor the inquest.

Apart from Matiang’i, former Interior PS Karanja Kibicho was among those who were to face the commission.

Many other government officials who were believed to have played a part in the “state capture and cronyism” in the Uhuru era were to appear before the probe team.

The inquiry would focus on, among others, claims that top officials used their powers to irregularly award tax exemptions, especially to foreign firms.

Ruto’s team has also alleged in some forums that some money was drawn from state coffers and carted away in sacks in the last days of the previous administration.

Ruto’s team has also alleged state capture was at play in the buyback of Telkom Kenya, linking the beneficiary firm to top Jubilee officials.

The events that played out at Bomas of Kenya moments before the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission declared Ruto the winner of the 2022 presidential race were also expected to feature in the probe.

Claims were rife that top state officials attempted to ‘alter the results of the election in favour of ODM leader Raila Odinga’.

Way before the elections, the UDA members said they would probe the events once they assumed power.

President Ruto and his team announced the plan in their manifesto in the contest with Raila’s Azimio side.

It suggested a quasi-judicial public inquiry “to establish the extent of cronyism and state capture in the nation and make recommendations.”

Ultimately, Matiang’i framed the failure to follow through on the probe as a cautionary tale for the Kenyan public.

“The import of this is for Kenyans to be careful about what people tell them,” he concluded, suggesting that the allegations were a political tactic with no basis in fact.

The continued silence on the promised ‘state capture’ report raises fresh questions about the nature of the allegations that once dominated the nation’s political discourse.

INSTANT ANALYSIS

Matiang’i’s pointed challenge leaves the government with a difficult choice: break its silence and finally produce the long-promised evidence, or remain quiet and risk being seen as having used grave allegations of state capture and assassination as mere political propaganda.