Civil Society want Matiang’i, Kibicho to keep off politics

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Interior PS Karanja Kibicho and CS Fred Matiang'i at a past event. Civil Society Organizations want the two to keep off any sort of political inclinations to ensure security during the electioneering period./COURTESY

Civil Society Organizations want Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi and his Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho to keep off any form of political inclinations.

At a media briefing in Nairobi, Civil Society Organizations including, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Article 19, Muslim for Human Rights (MUHURI), Constitution  Reform Education and Consortium (CRECO), led by Independent Legal Unit (IMLU ) Executive Director Peter Kiama said that there is need for the two top government officials to keep off any form of political  inclination in order to execute their mandate effectively .

Kiama said that security is a sensitive docket whose bearers ought to handle it cautiously in order to make sure that the August 9th general elections go on smoothly.

“We are concerned about the leadership of the Ministry of Interior, and the leadership of police service especially interior with regard to the way the PS and CS interior are posturing in the public domain, they should not be seen at all to be supporting any political side, because they are in charge of National security and national security is for all of us,” Kiama said.

He urged the interior ministry to dispatch security officials to various political rallies in an impartial manner  in order to restore order during this electioneering period.

The organizations also called on the Inspector General of police Hillary Mutyambai to enhance training of police officers on matters elections, arguing that the number of police officers who have been trained is dismally low.

“We commend police service to ensure the training and availability of manual reference to police officers on elections, last time it wasn’t there,” Kiama said.

“But we are concerned that the training started very late, we believe that only 50 percent will be trained on that manual, which puts in doubt whether police officers will comply with human rights,” he added

This comes as the country is gearing towards the August 9th polls that is less than a month away.

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