Matiang’i fights back over Ruaraka land saga
What you need to know:
- CS says he has an inflexible belief in doing the right thing at all times, no matter what.
- He added he will focus on what we have to do, and ignore the noisemakers.
- He insisted that he will stick to doing the right thing even in the face of people hell-bent on making him “subservient.”
Interior Cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i was on Thursday furious at ‘noisemakers fighting for security tenders’ in the ministry and who he said were behind his recent woes.
Speaking just a day after a Senate committee recommended that he “be held responsible and further investigated, and if found culpable, prosecuted for occasioning the loss of Sh1.5 billion” in regards to the Ruaraka land compensation puzzle, Dr Matiang’i was livid, insisting that he was on the right track.
SUBSERVIENT
“I have an inflexible belief in doing the right thing at all times, no matter what. We will focus on what we have to do, and ignore the noisemakers,” Dr Matiang’i said at the Intercontinental Hotel.
The minister was speaking when he received a handover report from the National Cohesion and Integration Commission after the four-year term of the Francis Kaparo-led team ended.
He insisted that he will stick to doing the right thing even in the face of people he said were hell-bent on making him “subservient.”
PIECE OF MIND
“Because you want tenders in the security sector, because you want to lie, you want me as the minister to listen to you, your lies, and your theft, so you (can) harass me to subservience. Let me tell you: It will not happen!” the CS thundered.
Dr Matiang’i did not say why he was angry, but he referred to an interaction with a parliamentary committee where he said he had given them a piece of his mind on his stand on issues.
DUE DILIGENCE
“We have to do the work that we have been given. I have said this, and I have even told a parliamentary committee: We were not given these jobs to be popular,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Senate County Public Accounts and Investments Committee said Dr Matiang'i and Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang should be held responsible for not following due diligence in the acquisition of the land and ignoring the recommendations of an assessment which established that the space on which Ruaraka High and Drive Inn Primary schools stand is public land.
