Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has been summoned to appear in a case involving Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Nyamira and Kisii counties, who are suing the government for Sh6.5 billion in compensation.
Matiang’i, along with former Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho and former Head of Public Service Joseph Kanyua, was named in the lawsuit filed in 2022 and has been instructed to submit their responses.
Originally lodged at the High Court in Nairobi, the case has now been moved to the High Court in Kisii, which is more accessible for the petitioners.
The lawsuit was initiated by Rev. Bishop Brethren Nemwel Momanyi, representing the IDPs from Kisii and Nyamira counties, with the clergyman acting as their patron.
The petitioners are demanding that Matiang’i and Kibicho account for the Sh6.5 billion allocated by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration in the 2017/18 national budget for the resettlement of IDPs.
They claim that the funds were misappropriated, lost to corruption, and allegedly disbursed to fictitious IDPs and boda boda riders.
The former CS and his Principal Secretary are being held accountable as the compensation funds fell under their jurisdiction.
On September 23, 2024, Justice Chacha Mwita of the High Court in Nairobi ordered that the respondents be notified in advance of their court appearance.
They are required to appear before Justice Teresia Odero at the High Court in Kisii.
