Sack Matiang’i or we sanction him, Ruto allies tell President
Three legislators allied to Deputy President William Ruto have urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to sack Interior Cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i over the remarks he made last week or they sanction him.
Speaking separately the MPs claimed Matiang’i had disrespected the DP, who was elected by the people together with the President.
The leaders, who included Nelson Koech (Belgut), Caleb Kositany (Soy) and Samson Cherargei (Nandi Senator), said they are ready to start the process of censuring Matiang’i if Uhuru fails to take action on him.
Addressing a press conference at Parliament Buildings in Nairobi yesterday, the MPs alleged that Matiang’i and a number of other top civil servants had abandoned their roles of serving the public and are now playing partisan politics.
Kositany said it is the high time the President took action on errant civil servants to bring sanity to the government, adding that as at now the Executive is rocked with disharmony.
“We want to tell them to climb down from that high tower, swallow your ego and work for the people,” he said.
The Soy legislator told Matiang’i and his team that the country is not in an election mood and reminded him that Uhuru was elected together with Ruto on one party ticket in the 2017 poll.
“We want to call on our President to reign in on his Cabinet Secretaries. It is time the President gives a voice on this issue because it is really bad. It is like we are in a kindergarten where children do whatever they want to do,” he said.
“When we went into an election, there was no separate election for Ruto and Uhuru. If you respect both, you respect them. If you disrespect one, you have disrespected both of them,” he added.
Cherargei accused the Interior CS of using State machinery to intimidate some politicians and warned that as elected leaders they will not sit back and allow civil servants to continue playing partisan politics.
He said the National Assembly should institute disciplinary action against any Cabinet Secretary who is politicking as the Constitution bars them against the practice.
“We will not go far if you continue intimidating some of us by ordering arbitrary arrest. Somebody who handles the critical docket of security should not be partisan,” he said.
Koech told Matiang’i he risks dire consequences, including being censured by Parliament, should he continue disrespecting Ruto.
“This issue of him seeing us MPs as nothing is very unfortunate because today, Parliament can decide to send you home if we decide that you do not deserve to be a CS anymore.”
The legislators’s sentiments come after Matiang’i at a fundraiser in Kirinyaga last Friday, said he was only accountable to the President, remarks that saw Ruto responding and insisting that civil servants who have been given jobs by the President should not go round “chest-thumping and displaying arrogance”.
