There is a famous phrase that goes; one day you’re cock of the walk, the next, a feather duster.
No one currently personifies that phrase right now than Dr Fred Okengo Matiang’i, who just six months ago, was effectively the second most powerful person in the country after former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
He was a super Cabinet Secretary who wielded immense power and few dared to cross him because the repercussions were quick and vicious.
When the former Interior CS spoke, everyone listened, and when he walked into a room, you knew the entire power of the government was in that room with you.
He is a hefty man with a booming voice to match. Throw in heavily tinted chase fuel-guzzling cars and some mean-looking men with guns and you stand up and wait your turn to answer a question.
But, six months in, and a change of guard at State House and the cock is now a feather duster. As a civilian, Matiang’i is finding life rough.
He had made enough enemies that they are now coming after him with their newfound power.
Matiang’i is set to be charged with conspiracy to commit a felony and publication of false information.
This was after he was summoned to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations on Kiambu Road where he was held for close to seven hours. His lawyers said he was grilled for only 15 minutes.
Once he was allowed to leave, the DCI said he would be summoned whenever necessary.
How did Dr Matiang’i, find himself on the wrong end of the table at the DCI?
When former President Uhuru Kenyatta tapped Fred Matiang’i from the academic world in 2013 to head the lucrative ICT ministry, no one knew that the former university don would wield sweeping powers in the cabinet, earning him friends and foes in equal measure.
In the ICT docket, Matiang’i’s first role was to lead the migration from analogue television broadcasting services to digital television broadcasting services. Here, he bulldozed his way out despite several cries from industry stakeholders, media owners and managers earning him the title ‘Mr. fix it.’
His boldness and calculative approaches earned him a favourite spot in Uhuru’s inner power circle. When former Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu was thrown out of the Lands ministry over graft allegations in 2015, Matiang’i was called to head the ministry in an acting capacity. Here, he ended the power tussle between the Lands ministry and the National Land Commission.
When exam cheating seriously hit Kenya in 2015, Matiang’i was moved from the ICT ministry to head the Education docket in November 2015, taking over from Prof. Jacob Kaimenyi.
Matiang’i relentlessly fought exam cheating and dismantled moneyed cartels that held KNEC hostage by running a racket of exam cheating in the country.
This led to a sharp fall in the number of students who scored grade A in the 2016 KCSE exams; a move that angered KNUT officials.
Former KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion accused Matiang’i of not taking the 2016 KCSE results through a usual normalisation process where grading is adjusted according to the general performance of students in different subjects.
Unbowed, Matiang’i would then answer back saying his goal was to restore sanity in a sector bridled by unfairness.
“The Ministry of Education will not be distracted by the prophets of doom who want us to return to the past unethical practices that allowed children of the rich to access stolen examination at KCPE and KCSE levels,” Matiang’i responded.
It is the powerful Interior ministry that would thrust Fred Matiang’i into the power matrix, rubbing shoulders with both the opposition, the courts and the media.
On January 30, 2018, Matiang’i asserted his powers and switched off three television stations for covering the live broadcast of Raila’s swearing as people’s president in Uhuru Park.
Matiang’i on several occasions defied court orders, putting him at the centre of the Judicial and Executive war witnessed in Uhuru’s administration.
When the High Court gave orders for the immediate release of lawyer Miguna Miguna from detention, Matiang’i and other government officials acted in contempt, a move that angered the then High Court Judge George Odunga.
“There is no immunity for impunity; a time has come when the courts must lift the veil against those who act with impunity in disobeying it. No man is above the law. The government officials cannot be allowed to catwalk around while disobeying court orders,” Judge Odunga said.
Four years to the end of his term limit, President Kenyatta made radical changes in his government, naming Matiang’i the Super CS.
His mandate was expanded to chair key committees on the implementation of development programmes, whose membership included all Cabinet Secretaries, the Attorney General and Head of the Public Service.
Matiang’i’s elevation that handed him the supervisory role in the Jubilee administration put him at loggerheads with the then deputy President and now President William Ruto and this is largely why he finds himself in rough waters.
He elbowed Ruto out of the government he helped form. Matiang’i became the face of Uhuru’s government while Ruto cried in the periphery.
The outspoken CS would then surprise Kenyans when he called for the resignation of William Ruto as DP for opposing the government.
“You sit with the very people in the National Security Council, you eat government-funded food, drive cars fuelled by that government and live in a house owned by that very government. But you don’t have the courage to leave,” said Matiang’i.
On August 26, 2021, Matiang’i withdrew GSU officers guarding then Deputy President William Ruto’s official residence in Karen and replaced them with Administration Police officers, a move the government said was a normal operation.
But while facing the National Assembly over the changes, Matiang’i said the Deputy President’s residence is not a State Lodge or a State House to be guarded by members of the elite General Service (GSU).
“The problem with our country is that some people suffer from sympathy addiction. They’re always looking for opportunities to lament about this and that to attract sympathy. The law is very clear in black and white. It is the residence of the Deputy President. There are some things that look politically sensible but when you go by the law they don’t,” Matiang’i said.
When William Ruto and his allies complained of a plot to rig the 2022 general election through County Commissioners and chiefs, Matiang’i dismissed the claims with this famous quote.
“I agree with his excellency that Kenya has a shortage of fools and I think that applies more to some of those petty claims he makes than anything else,” he said.
“Sometimes in a civilised world these claims I find them too cheap and ridiculous to even think about and when they come from the mouths of senior leaders you don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
When William Ruto and his Kenya Kwanza lieutenants hit out at former President Uhuru Kenyatta for allegedly giving Ruto’s role to Matiang’i, he came out guns blazing to defend his boss. He dismissed the claims saying Ruto and his team were panicking ahead of the general election.
“Kenyans are very wise and they cannot be cheated. They have seen the good work done by our President since he was elected in 2013. Those fighting him will face the wrath of Kenyans during the coming General Election.”
For now, Matiang’i is a free man and everyone is waiting for see just how far the government will go to settle their scores.
