Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i has distanced himself from allegations of involvement in extrajudicial killings during former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration.
Matiang’i said he was unaware of the now-defunct Special Service Unit (SSU) was linked to a series of controversial deaths.
In an interview July 1 on Citizen TV, Matiang’i broke his silence on the so-called “killer squad,” which has been blamed for a string of unexplained disappearances and killings during his tenure.
“I was not aware of the Special Service Unit of the DCI,” Matiang’i said.
“The current president, when he was sworn in, asked me about it and I told him I was hearing it for the first time from him.”
Matiang’i on Police Operation
The former CS added that ministers do not micromanage police operations.
“You need to understand: the minister cannot be part of all the operations of the police service. It’s not every operation every day,” he said.
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He added that the idea of ministers ordering arrests is a myth.
“Once in a while, I meet a politician saying, ‘Oh, the minister arrested me.’ No minister has powers to arrest you. You were arrested by the police.”
Matiang’i, who served as a powerful Interior CS between 2017 and 2022, denied any personal link to the country’s unresolved killings and enforced disappearances, calling for full public transparency.
He challenged the current administration to reveal what President William Ruto then Deputy President knew during that time.
Among the cases Matiang’i addressed were the River Yala deaths, where more than 30 bodies were recovered, and the 2017 murder of IEBC ICT Manager Chris Msando, which occurred just days before the General Election.
Extrajudicial Killings
“We asked the Police IG, and it was agreed that the DCI should spend some time there,” Matiang’i said of the River Yala case.
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“When they came back, we demanded an inquest. The DCI needed families to positively identify the bodies. By the time we left office, the file was still open. I didn’t leave with the file it was a police matter.”
Msando’s killing, along with other high-profile cases such as those of Jacob Juma and Sgt. Kipyegon Kenei, also remained unresolved.
“Even if you’re the President, there’s nothing you can do. You go by what the Police IG tells you,” he said.
Insisting that he has nothing to hide, Matiang’i said he is willing to testify before a judge in any public inquiry into the killings.
“These matters can be resolved if the government opens a public inquest,” he stated.
The former CS’s remarks come amid growing public pressure on the government to investigate human rights abuses allegedly committed by security agencies in recent years.
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