DP William Ruto wanted George Natembeya fired without reason - Fred Matiang'i

Details have emerged of how the Ministry of Interior was under pressure by the Kenya Kwanza Alliance presidential candidate, Deputy President William Ruto to sack the former Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya.

This is according to the Interior CS Fred Matiang’i who said Ruto wanted all regional commissioners appointed under his tenure to be relieved of their duties without apparent reasons to justify the move.

“For the time I have been at the Ministry of Interior I can say this publicly, he likes to quote God and God is seeing all of us talking here. The pressure under which we have come before to even sack Natembeya for example,” Matiang’i revealed.

Matiang’i was reacting to Ruto’s Thursday statement in which he accused the current Rift Valley Regional Commissioner Maalim Mohamed of planning chaos on Tuesday.

He alleged Maalim of holding secret night meetings with people to plan chaos on election day together with County Commissioners from Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, and Nakuru County.

"The Regional Commissioner of Rift Valley, Maalim Mohamed, the County commissioners Samson Ojwang of Trans Nzoia and Stephen Kihara of Uasin Gishu and Erastus Mbui of Nakuru are part of this scheme. They are the people holding night meetings to plan conflict amongst Kenyans," Ruto said.

However, Matiang’i emphasised Ruto’s wish to have Natembeya and other County Commissioners sacked over unexplained reasons.

“I have not seen a regional commissioner that the DP did not want sacked. We came under intense pressure to fire Natembeya even as county commissioner in Narok, then as regional commissioner in Rift Valley from him, insisting he must be fired even without providing reasons why we should fire him,” Matiang’i added.

Natembeya was the Rift Valley County Commissioner before resigning on January 13, 2022, after 26 years of public service to join Trans Nzoia gubernatorial politics.