Interior CS Fred Matiang’i has affirmed Kenya’s commitment to regional integration, following the controversial remarks made by Starehe MP Charles Njagua. He reiterated that Kenya is committed to fulfilling the agreements put in place with other East African countries. “There is no government policy about discriminating and harassing, especially colleagues, neighbours, brothers and sisters within the East African community…we are going to live together, we are going to do business together and we are going to work together and build East Africa together.”
The Starehe MP, commonly known as Jaguar, said foreign business people in Nairobi should be forcefully evicted, including Tanzanians and Ugandans. He faulted the MP for his comments, terming them as embarrassing, adding that he should apologize not to the government, but to Kenyans as a whole. Matiang’i urged leaders to be mindful of the words they speak in public.
He noted that Kenya has a large workforce in other East African nations, “Some countries in East Africa like Rwanda, we have agreed that you don’t need a passport to go there and come back so that the youths can have no worries when they get jobs there. We must make sure we protect Kenyans. If someone else hears the comments, he’ll start harassing Kenyans where they are doing their business and it will be a problem.”
The CS said the law doesn’t discriminate and one will face the full force of the law. He said that being a CS or MP doesn’t matter if one breaks the law. “You can’t take the law in your hands and start saying you’ll beat up people. You can’t do that, we are a civilized country.”