Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has spoken for the first time on the harassment he underwent after handing over the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government to the Kenya Kwanza administration in 2023.
Speaking during a TV interview on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, Matiang’i revealed that his home was indeed raided, contrary to what the then Cabinet Secretary for Interior, Kithure Kindiki, said, that no security agency visited Matiang’i’s Karen home in February 2023.
“It is something I would not want to talk about because it was a very unfortunate incident, and it is part of the harassment and frustration that many of us went through after the transition of government, which I personally would not want to see happening to anybody in this country,” Matiang’i said.
Traumatising incident
“I think the less I say about that incident, the better for me because I would not like to revisit that incident; the circumstances around it were very frustrating and traumatising, not just for me but also for my family.”
He equally disclosed that several people with whom he served in government had also been harassed by the Kenya Kwanza regime, which he now plans to challenge in the upcoming 2027 general elections.
“There are many people with whom I served in government, including the former president, who went through a lot of challenges in 2023 for no particular reason,” Matiang’i narrated.
“I decided to forgive those who were involved in it and forget those things and just carry on with life because some of them are very painful things that I don’t want to think about.”
Leaked travel documents
He particularly recounted an incident where his travel details were leaked to the public, with information that he had secretly left the country, despite having informed President William Ruto of his intention to fly out of the country.
“When you wake up in the morning and find your passport details and travel details are exposed to the public by a government agency and you did not leave the country secretly; yet that time the head of public service had told us that the new president had requested that we all 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,” Matiang’i stated.
“I actually spoke to the president and informed him about the reasons why I was going to the UK at that particular time.”
“When you travel in that particular manner and then you get state agencies publishing your passport and travel details, and government bloggers claiming that you have run away in a cargo plane, what can be more humiliating and frustrating?” he posed.
