Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has criticised state agencies for failing to prevent the infiltration of protests by hired goons, saying Kenya’s intelligence infrastructure is too advanced for such activities to go unnoticed.
Speaking during an interview on a local media station on July 1, 2025, Matiang’i questioned the government’s apparent inaction despite public claims that rogue individuals had recruited and deployed armed gangs during demonstrations.
“I cannot imagine that our security infrastructure does not know when someone is hiring or training goons to bring them into town to cause mayhem. If they have that information, they should act,” Matiang’i said.
Intelligence system
He dismissed the idea that such operations could occur without the knowledge of security agencies, particularly the National Intelligence Service (NIS), which he said has the capacity to monitor phone calls, trace financial transactions, and intercept plans in real-time.
“The way the National Intelligence Service works, I can’t carry guns, drive with guns from Kisii to Nairobi in my car or have people bringing guns to me and the National Intelligence Service does not know that Matiang’i is receiving guns or is engaged with some rebel guys in some corner and they’re supplying guns. And then for them to wait until a particular time, then they say, ‘Oh, Matiangi could be having guns.’ I find that very strange,” he explained.
Faulting the country’s law enforcement agencies, he cited Nairobi’s robust security structure—led by the regional commissioner and comprising police, intelligence, and county security officers—as sufficient to detect and disrupt plots of goon infiltration to protests early.
“I don’t want to pretend, I know for sure that the National Intelligence Service listens to our phone calls and so on and so forth. This happens. There are ways of collecting intelligence. So, how is it that if they know that one is recruiting goons from Roysambu to bring them to Nairobi, why wait until the goons get to Nairobi?” he stated.
Need for action
Matiang’i further called out public officials for making allegations in the media while failing to take concrete action.
“They are the custodians of information. They have the instruments of power. If there is evidence that individuals hired goons, then action should be taken — not just talk,” he said.
He stated that political accountability in the country was at an all-time low, warning that failure to act decisively on credible intelligence could embolden criminal elements and undermine public trust in the state.
“There’s a very low level of accountability in our political practice in the country and what I mean by low level of accountability is this, in addition to deployment of goons or whatever it is, as it were, the speech that we see from leaders and various actors within the political environment is sometimes very frustrating,” he added.
