This archive report was first published on 23 September 2019.
On September 23, 2019, a heated exchange erupted between Interior CS Fred Matiang'i and Senator Aaron Cheruiyot during the burial of businessman Stephen Ongenyo at Kerumbe, Nyamira County.
Cheruiyot claimed that Ruto summoned him to the DP's office, where he was asked about an adverse report in the Senate touching on the CS. "The Deputy President called me on his hotline. I rushed there and found him with Matiang'I in the office. He asked me about the issues with the report and I told him it was witch hunt," the Senator claimed.
However, Matiang'i denied the claims, telling off Cheruiyot in Ekegusii, saying: "Amang'ana buna aya omonto agokwana igaiga buna tokaumerana nobochoni naende oboochi obonene (What you have heard someone say that there was a meeting, that's foolishness and stupidity).">
Cheruiyot's claims infuriated Matiang'i, who accused him of lying about the meeting in the DP's office. "What does it serve you to peddle lies when even God is a witness that there was no such meeting?" Matiang'i posed.
The clash between Cheruiyot, an ally of the Deputy President, and the Interior CS rekindled memories of the disquiet between a number of Rift MPs and Matiang'i following his promotion.
Earlier, a report by the Senate Public Accounts and Investment Committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang had recommended that Dr Matiang’i and Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang be held accountable for the loss of Sh1.5 billion paid out to a businessman for land the committee ruled was public property.
Justices Bernard Eboso, Elijah Obaga, and Kossy Bor had ruled that the Sh1.5 billion payment to businessman Francis Mburu was illegal, citing that the land was public property.
