NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 5 – Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui has criticised former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua over remarks allegedly calling for United States intervention to investigate Kenya’s leadership over claims linked to the Minnesota fraud case.
He said it was ‘irresponsible for a political leader to seek foreign involvement in sensitive national matters.’
The CS cautioned that conflating political disagreements with issues of international legal and diplomatic significance posed serious risks to the country’s stability and global standing.
‘While investigations are not within my mandate, the failure to distinguish between political rivalry and matters of grave international consequence is deeply alarming,” he said.
The Trade CS questioned the motive behind the call for external intervention, warning that such actions could expose Kenya to unnecessary diplomatic and economic fallout.
‘How can a leader seek to throw his own country into turmoil merely to pursue personal vendettas?’ Kinyanjui posed, describing the approach as reckless, retrogressive and dangerous.
Kinyanjui further warned political actors against treating matters of statecraft lightly, saying some issues demand restraint, responsibility and patriotism rather than public grandstanding.
The U.S. Justice Department in December 2025 charged 98 individuals in a sweeping fraud investigation centered in Minnesota, with more prosecutions expected.
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that 85 of those charged so far are of Somali descent.
Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel says investigators have dismantled a massive $250 million fraud scheme tied to pandemic food aid programs.
A viral social media video by YouTuber Nick Shirley, which was amplified by Elon Musk, Vice President J.D. Vance and Bondi, has put the issue into the center of the national conversation, stoking a scandal that has been brewing in state politics for years.
In the wake of the video, the Trump administration announced it is pausing federal funding to child care in Minnesota, with President Trump calling Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also announced sweeping changes to how all states must submit claims for Medicaid-supported daycares, including requiring “a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state.”
