Matiangi is yet to campaign in Luo Nyanza because he did NOTHING for Luos in the entire time he was a CS.
Rather than take the entire Nyanza as his backyard, Matiangi had the same smallmindedness of the older generation of Abagusii govt officials who treated their Luo neighbors as enemies!
Matiangi spent 10 years fighting Luo Nyanza. He was among those who were so bitter with the 2018 handshake, which came as a surprise to him. He ensured the govt remained shut to ODM. Having been elevated courtesy of handshake, Matiangi walled off the government and operated largely as a hostile saboteur.
He stretched COVID lockdowns to stall Raila’s campaigns — the ploy being to pile pressure on Raila/Uhuru to support him instead. Back then together with Kagwe, they were obsessed with contesting.
The worst purge of Luo officers in the ranks of OCS, OCPDs, DCIOs etc happened during his time. Today if you asked Matiangi to tell you any Luos he moved up the govt ladder, he will point to nobody. He refused to appoint Luos as county and regional commissioners, while populating the security architecture of Kenya with people from one ethnic group.
Under Matiangi, Murima drunkards got Kiganjo letters as tokens to remain sober. The changaa dens-to-Kiganjo pipeline started with the many rehabilitation centres he opened in Mt. Kenya to ‘fight’ illicit brews. These fronts for money-laundering became a pipeline to recruit outside the normal police recruitment channels.
On education, the worst teacher transfers happened during his time too (as education cs). He had this habit of transfering perfoming Luo Nyanza school heads while at the same time interfering with exam results. Matiangi failed so many students, accusing historically top performing schools of cheating and then moderating their results.
There’s a time he even detained KCSE results of Maranda High School!
On human rights, Matiangi was a flagrant abuser of human rights who deported a Luo from Nyando to Canada.
The matter of Miguna made so many Luos hate Raila but it was all Matiangi’s games.
Those pretending they can live under a Matiangi presidency were in high school when Matiangi was at the helm of Interior. Under Matiangi they will be beaten to a pulp!
As a political player in 2022, rather than strengthen ODM, Matiangi joined a number of Uhuru cabinet secretaries who formed their own small political parties, insisting that ODM had to cede to their briefcase parties.
The sad irony is that UDA mostly wiped these parties out of the face of the earth!
In Nyamira, Matiangi’s backyard, Azimio ended up doing so poorly as Matiangi engaged ODM in a ruthless attrition war. Ruto bagged so many votes in Nyamira due to this confusion. He ended up toe-to-toe with Raila Odinga.
That today Matiangi is a fringe paperweight hoping for a murima miracle is so poetic to watch.
The worst punishment for Matiangi’s truancy is coming in 2027. Murima can vote for him though. They actually should. He was their errand boy.
A Matiangi-Orengo ticket will lose at 9am.
Dikembe Disembe is a Political Researcher and Writer
