Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto’s office has dismissed as lies Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi’s’ presentation to the parliamentary committee in which he said the DP owns a string of property and business which are well guarded by police.
While appearing before the National Assembly’s Committee on Administration and National Security on the morning of Wednesday, September 1, Interior CS listed properties that he claimed are owned by the deputy president and protected by state security.
But in a letter by his Communications Secretary David Mugonyi, the former Agriculture Minister accused Matiang’i of propagating malicious falsehood and assaulting the dignity of the deputy president’s office by recklessly listing businesses and property purportedly owned by the former Agriculture minister.
Without mentioning which properties, Ruto’s office said he does not own most of the properties listed.
“To underscore Matiang’i’s recklessness, many properties allocated to the Deputy President in his statement to Parliament are in fact not his. …. This false association with strange and fictitious properties is therefore unnecessary and malicious,” said Ruto’s spokesperson.
Some of the properties Matiang’i had claimed that are owned by William Ruto include Murumbi farm, ADC Laikipia Mutara Ranch, Weston Hotel, Dolphine Hotel, Mata Farm, Private Residence in Elgon View, Eldoret, Koitalel Poultry Farm, and Private Residence in Eldoret among others.
Matiang’i further told the committee that Ruto is the most protected second in command since independence, something that his office rubbished citing that the deputy president did not assign himself those officers but the constitution did.
“It is dishonest of Matiang’i to compare offices from an obsolete constitutional and historical era, and which preexisted the Office of Deputy President, when it is elementary that the Office of the Deputy President is established by the 2010 Constitution,” he wrote.
The CS further downplayed assertions that the reshuffle of William Ruto’s security was done in bad faith adding that Ruto is among the most protected.
“We were not downgrading William Ruto’s security when we made the re-arrangements. The re-arrangement was initiated by the IG for reasons I cannot explain here in public. We informed the DP about the changes as it is routine to do so,” he told the MPs.
