The Chairman of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Northern Kenya, Hafid Maalim, has taken on former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i over his comments regarding the issuance of national identity cards in Northern Kenya.
Source: UGC
While speaking during the Wiper party NDC in Nairobi on Friday, October 10, Matiang’i asserted that the unregulated issuance of the citizen document in the region was posing a danger to national security.
The former CS claimed some of those registered are not Kenyans by birth, and that they are being citizenised for political purposes.
“Please allow me to say only one thing that is very, very painful to me today. What is going on right now in the country and my colleagues, and I’m calling them colleagues because I just left the security sector three years ago, having served as Minister for Interior. The activities of registering people, some of whom are not even Kenyan citizens, getting identification cards, and doing all manner of criminal monkeying that is going to affect our country are setting the stage for anarchy in this country,” Matiang’i said.
“I want to ask our brothers and sisters who are in government that you know there must come a time in the history and in the life of a public servant when you must think about your country more than the very basic issues of political expedience and political survival at any point in time,” he added.
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Reacting to the sentiments, Hafid termed them as unfortunate.
He told TUKO.co.ke that such comments reek of discrimination against Kenyans who have grappled with marginalisation for a while.
Hafid regretted that communities in Northern Kenya have been unfairly profiled. He said they are Kenyans like any other and ought to be treated with dignity.
“Matiang’i is the most clueless and incompetent leader we have ever seen. He can’t talk about a whole community in such a bad way. Since when did being a Somali make one a criminal?” he posed.
He faulted the former CS for propagating a negative campaign against innocent Kenyans whose only mistake could be having been born in Northern Kenya.
According to him, Matiang’i performed dismally during his tenure in the Interior department, suggesting that his run was never impactful.
Hafid compared Matiang’i’s time and that of the current CS, Kipchumba Murkomen, concluding that the latter has performed impressively.
He cited such initiatives as Jukwaa La Usalama, through which Murkomen traversed the country meeting members of the public and the security chiefs to identify the challenges in policing and other security operations.
“Matiang’i never traversed the country to understand the challenges faced by Kenyans and assess security in the 47 counties. He doesn’t deserve to be a leader, let alone become the president. IDs are a right of all Kenyans. Communities in Northern Kenya are not guests in this country. Matiang’i can’t be trusted; he has a dark heart and hence doesn’t deserve to be a leader in this country. CS Murkomen has performed excellently for the three months he has been in office. He has gone to all the counties through the Jukwaa La Usalama initiative. He has met administrators and police officers to assess their welfare, and also gets to learn the security needs of the public, and takes reports to enhance security operations. Matiang’i never did that. His work was sitting in Nairobi, and he took tea paid for by the taxpayer,” he said.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
