diff --git a/src/components/markdown_editor/markdown_editor.tsx b/src/components/markdown_editor/markdown_editor.tsx
index 3b83e14228..ebec30f822 100644
--- a/src/components/markdown_editor/markdown_editor.tsx
+++ b/src/components/markdown_editor/markdown_editor.tsx
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ export const OuiMarkdownEditor = forwardRef<
         const parsed = parser.processSync(value);
         return [parsed, null];
       } catch (e) {
-        return [null, e];
+        return [null, e as OuiMarkdownParseError];
       }
     }, [parser, value]);
 
diff --git a/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.ts b/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.ts
index 354855d244..d1474eeafb 100644
--- a/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.ts
+++ b/src/components/search_bar/query/default_syntax.ts
@@ -353,8 +353,10 @@ const validateFieldValue = (
     try {
       schemaField.validate(value);
     } catch (e) {
+      const message = e instanceof Error ? e.message : e;
+
       error(
-        `Invalid value \`${expression}\` set for field \`${field}\` - ${e.message}`,
+        `Invalid value \`${expression}\` set for field \`${field}\` - ${message}`,
         location
       );
     }
diff --git a/src/components/search_bar/search_bar.tsx b/src/components/search_bar/search_bar.tsx
index 57cacc6056..f18d91ebd2 100644
--- a/src/components/search_bar/search_bar.tsx
+++ b/src/components/search_bar/search_bar.tsx
@@ -189,7 +189,11 @@ export class OuiSearchBar extends Component<OuiSearchBarProps, State> {
       this.notifyControllingParent({ query, queryText, error: null });
       this.setState({ query, queryText, error: null });
     } catch (e) {
-      const error: Error = { name: e.name, message: e.message };
+      const error: Error =
+        e instanceof Error
+          ? { name: e.name, message: e.message }
+          : { name: 'Unexpected error', message: String(e) };
+
       this.notifyControllingParent({ query: null, queryText, error });
       this.setState({ queryText, error });
     }
diff --git a/tsconfig.json b/tsconfig.json
index 9bad02c5e7..54444a2ed5 100644
--- a/tsconfig.json
+++ b/tsconfig.json
@@ -40,9 +40,6 @@
     // Disallow inconsistently-cased references to the same file.
     "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
 
-    // Keep type of the variable in a catch clause as `any`
-    "useUnknownInCatchVariables": false,
-
     // enables "core language features"
     "lib": [
       // ESNext auto includes previous versions all the way back to es5