Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has spoken on the recent police activity at his predecessor, Fred Matiang’i’s residence in Karen, Nairobi.
It all began on the night of February 8 when Matiang’i claimed that his home was raided, surrounded and cordoned off by police officers who were seeking to arrest him.
He obtained a Ksh.200,000 anticipatory bail barring police from arresting and detaining him after moving to court, claiming he is apprehensive that his constitutional rights are being violated.
Then on February 15, while the former CS was not home, a multi-agency security team raided the residence, allegedly looking for CCTV footage of the earlier incident at the premises.
CS Kindiki, in a Monday night interview with NTV, said he had been fully briefed on the operation by his officials.
Kindiki said he had been given assurance that detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) had carried out the search in accordance with the constitution.
“DCI wanted to get to the bottom of this matter and the former minister went to court and filed an affidavit saying there are things the police want to do against him and got anticipatory bail. Because the police are the accused they also went to court and convinced the judge that for them to be able to acquit themselves from the allegations, they needed to investigate the CCTV and other material with a view to establishing the veracity of the original claim,” he told the network.
“I was assured that it was done pursuant to the law and that is the only access I know of police officers in the private home of the former minister.”
Asked if he has called Matiang’i since the raid, Kindiki smiled before saying; “We wouldn’t want to politicise or personalise security matters and my desire is to make sure that as a minister, every Kenyan feels safe when they see a police officer.”
He went on to state that as a former government official, Matiang’i deserves to be treated with dignity, just as any other Kenyan.
“Of course my predecessor deserves to be treated with dignity as a former State officer, alongside many other officers who have served this country. I would be interested, the same way I am in that person out there in Baragoi who is being harassed by criminals,” said Kindiki.
The Interior CS said he is not interested in vindictive politics, adding that he will not allow the police force to be used to harass former government officials.
“This matter is of interest to me and I will remain seized of it until we get to its bottom because we don’t want to turn our country into a country of witch-hunt and pettiness and we cannot turn security apparatus to punish people simply because they are not in office. Everybody who is in office will leave office at some point,” he said.
“I wouldn’t use the time that I have been given to try and hurt people, demean people and treat them unfairly, because I will also be a former minister.”
Wednesday’s raid happened despite a court earlier declining to issue orders for the DCI to access the CCTV footage.
Through an application dated February 10, the investigative agency wanted the court to direct the manager of Amsec Security Services, which mans Dr Matiangi’s home, to hand over security footage for the period between 6 am February 8 and 11pm, February 9.
However, the orders sought were not granted, with the magistrate ordering that the matter be mentioned on March 7.
On Wednesday, DCI boss Mohamed Amin said said no one, including the former CS, had filed a complaint at any police station regarding the February 8 incident.
Amin said investigations had established that a Subaru car that was spotted by journalists entering the home of Matiang’i during the alleged raid belonged to a private businessman and not police.
He dismissed the alleged raid as a “well-coordinated and deliberate attempt to spread false information and incite public fear,” and assured that action would be taken against any officer found to have been involved.
