Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has reappeared after being out of the public eye for months. He faced accusations regarding the alleged issuance of orders to shut down the Kenyatta University Campus in Kigali, Rwanda.
Matiang’i was summoned by the National Assembly’s Public Investment Committee last week to address these allegations. Initially, he cited his unavailability and location in Washington DC, United States, preventing him from appearing in person.
However, he was granted the opportunity to appear virtually before the committee to provide his account of the events in Kigali that reportedly resulted in a loss of Ksh600 million for the taxpayers.
In defending himself, Matiang’i stated that the Paul Kagame administration had made it difficult for KU to function in Rwanda.
“Neither the government nor the university administration had requested that the campus be shut down. Authorities and regulators in Rwanda closed them down,” he defended himself.
According to an Auditor General’s report for the 2019–20 fiscal year, the government invested more than Ksh420 million on the project.
The Kenyatta University Campus project in Kigali, despite the significant investments, did not yield any economic benefits for Kenya. This issue has come to the forefront, and Fred Matiang’i’s recent public appearance marked a rare occurrence since March.
In March, charges that had been leveled against him were dropped by the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP). These charges included conspiracy to commit a felony and publication of false information, and the DPP dropped the case due to a lack of evidence that met the required legal threshold to prove the charges.
It’s not immediately clear whether the former Cabinet Secretary was residing in the US or had traveled there for a visit.