Japhet Koome, the Inspector General of Police, has denied that special officers raided former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi’s Karen residence in Nairobi.
Koome asserted that no National Police Service (NPS) officer was dispatched to Matiangi’s house on the night of Wednesday, February 9, as widely reported.
“I wish to clarify that no police officer under the National Police Service was sent to former CS Fred Matiang’i residence at all,” Koome said.
There were also suspicions that the aforementioned elite squad was affiliated with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
However, EACC chief Twalib Mbarak denied the allegations, claiming that the anti-corruption organization had nothing to do with the alleged raid.
According to reports, police officers surrounded Matiang’i in the late hours of Wednesday night in an attempt to arrest him. The motive for the ambush was not immediately obvious.
According to ODM leader Raila Odinga and Matiang’i’s lawyer Dunstan Omari, police raised the former CS’s residence without stating why.
The cops did not gain entrance to the former Cabinet minister’s residence. Raila arrived at the house as soon as word spread that the former CS’s house was under police surveillance.
“I have just received information that police have surrounded the home of former minister of internal security Fred Matiang’i. I was shocked to hear that this was happening at this hour of the night. We are now witnessing what this country has been through before. The times of late-night arrests and detentions of people without any formal charges appear to be coming back,” he said.
