The Jubilee Party pick for the 2027 presidential election faces a rough road in his intention, with a myriad of political obstacles being placed in his path by influential forces within the Establishment even before he formally announces his bid.
The State is reportedly salivating at Matiangi’s impending official declaration of his candidature, which they plan to greet with considerable muscle as revenge for his acts of omission and commission while he held mammoth influence in the previous Government of retired President Uhuru Kenyatta and the current President William Ruto as the Principal Assistant.
There is no love lost between the former powerful Cabinet Secretary for Interior and top-notch functionaries in the ruling Kenya Kwanza regime, who feel he mistreated them when he held the coveted position. Impeccable sources say that Matiang’i is likely to face 14 criminal and misdemeanor charges once he formally declares his bid to run for the presidency. The decision by the Jubilee Party to float him as its presidential candidate seems to have rubbed some State actors the wrong way.
The unamused key State luminaries have, for the past two years, been juggling possible criminal charges to be filed against the former Minister. Initially, authoritative sources disclosed, Matiang’i was to have faced only five criminal charges in the first half of 2023, but the move was put on hold after intervention by senior politicians from his Kisii backyard.
However, the sources revealed that a decision by the former ruling party, headed by retired President Uhuru Kenyatta, to present Matiang’i as its presidential candidate has pricked some luminaries within the Kenya Kwanza administration, who have since revisited the proposed charge sheet and vowed to “show him a lesson,” with 14 criminal and misdemeanor charges having already been drafted as of the end of last month.
Relevant Kenya Kwanza political actors have lately been weaving what they consider to be watertight, embarrassing offenses against the former Minister, relating to the multi-million Ruaraka land fraud case in which his name has repeatedly been mentioned adversely, abuse of office, disobeying court orders, especially in the immigration litigation by self-exiled outspoken lawyer Joshua Miguna Miguna, whose passport the State had revoked during Matiang’i’s tenure in office, an assault and molestation complaint by a young faithful of the SDA Nairobi Central church, alleged money laundering, alleged swindling of Shs 10 billion meant for the implementation of the stalled Huduma Number program, shootings of civilians during the Covid-19 enforcement exercise, extrajudicial killings, and dumping of dead bodies in River Yala, Tana River, Isiolo, and other places in Kenya. The cases against Matiang’i are to be filed in Nairobi, Kisumu, Kisii, and Mombasa courts.
