The High Court has granted former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i a Sh200,000 anticipatory bail, protecting him from alleged plans by the State to arrest him.
Justice Kanyi Kimondo also certified his case as urgent and directed himto furnish the State security agencies that he claims are pursuing him with the court papers, so that they can file responses.
Additionally, the judge said the police together the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) are at liberty to investigate any criminal conduct by Dr Matiang'i.
However, they will not arrest or detain him in view of the anticipatory bail. The judge fixed the case for mention on February 23, 2023 for further directions.
Dr Matinag’i sued six national government institutions including the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Inspector-General National Police Service, DPP and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and the Law Society of Kenya are listed as interested parties.
In the case, Dr Matiang’i said he was living under a cloud of uncertainty as to his liberty owing to the threat of his arrest by the police.
“I am apprehensive that my constitutional rights are being violated,” he said adding that he believes powers of the police to arrest are being abused and maliciously misused to harass, intimidate and oppress him.
Through Musyoki Mogaka & CO. Advocates, the CS claimed that the scheme to have him arrested was formulated on January 30, 2023 in Mombasa.
“I was informed that the scheme to have me arrested was formulated on the 30th January 2023 at the sidelines of the 16th Annual General Meeting and Africa Prosecutors’ Association (APA) Conference held at Mombasa,” he said in an affidavit. The conference was attended by President Ruto and he met the top prosecutor on the sidelines of the forum.
But DPP Noordin Haji dismissed the allegations and challenged Dr Matiang’i to produce evidence of the allegations.
“I have looked at his application in court and he has alleged that the President (Wiliam Ruto) and I met on the sidelines to plan in Mombasa when we had the Africa Prosecutors’ Association (APA) Conference to plan against him. That itself is a perjury and I will take him to task…I will take that affidavit to task because it is unacceptable,” said the DPP.
“Let him table evidence that we did that. We had several Attorney-Generals from all over Africa on the sidelines and I have the evidence that nothing like that happened. I take great exception that people are still continuing to commit perjury,” he continued.
In the court papers Dr Matiang’i added that for the ten years (2013-2022) he served in the Cabinet, he had any unanswered audit queries.
“I have never been arrested or charged in any court for any offence in relation to the exercise of my duties in the various dockets that I headed,” he said.
Apart from the Ministry of Interior, he also headed the Ministry Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning and the Ministry of Education.
He was also the Chairperson of the National Development Implementation and Communication Cabinet Committee.
He stated that between February 6 and 9, 2023 he received “credible information from several reliable sources and officers of the Kenya Police that there was a scheme to arbitrarily capture and arrest me with a view of arraigning me in court for ulterior political motives on trumped up charges”. The scheme was hatched in Mombasa, he alleged.
The police officers, he alleged, barricaded the entry to the house and only retreated after the media and his advocates arrived and the information of the alleged impending arrest went viral on social media platforms.
Stating that he has never been summoned to appear before any police station or investigative agency, Dr Matiang'i said that no arrest warrants have ever been against him.
"I am at a loss as to why the police officers are seeking to arrest me, he said while pointing an accusing finger to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
“Through a confidential source, I was reliably informed that the EACC had also received instructions between February 6 and 9, 2023 to open a criminal file and charge me with trumped up charges of abuse of office,” he said.
But the EACC EACC chief executive Twalib Mbarak denied and said: “We are not the ones. EACC is not in Dr Matiangi’s residence”.
