Photo: Hon David Murathe (right), a Statehouse operative and aide to President Uhuru. DP Ruto (left)
By Ngunjiri Wambugu
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT HAS BETRAYED THE CONSTITUTION, AND THE PRESIDENT
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The Constitution says that ‘the Deputy President is the Principal Assistant of the President, and deputizes for the President in executive functions’. The constitution further states that ‘the Deputy President shall perform the functions conferred by the constitution and any other functions of the President as the President may assign’. However Deputy President William Ruto has betrayed the trust bestowed upon him by the Constitution. He has also directly and indirectly undermined and betrayed the President.
Eg;
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1. UNDERMINING WAR ON CORRUPTION;
The DP and his close allies have been linked to corruption deals that have left the relationship between him and HE. Some of them have been arrested and arraigned in Court such as Cabinet Secretary to the National Treasury Henry Rotich, who was accused of corruption. In addition while the President was clear he would fight corruption, his Deputy was using his cronies to defend themselves claiming the war on corruption was being politicised.
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2. PREMATURE 2022 CAMPAIGNS
The President warned politicians against early campaigns. However the DP did not hear. To add insult to injury he concentrated in the President’s own Central Kenya back-yard to spite him. He then went around propping local politicians up with harambee funds, and promising others the 2022 DP position for support despite Uhuru’s warning. Politicians such as Kiunjuri, Kindiki, Muthomi, promising them power in with public statements.
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3. DISORGANISING THE GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT AGENDA;
The DP made several visits across the country and specifically to Central Kenya launching ghost projects without consulting line ministries, that had no other purpose than to build himself politically. HE had to step in and get CS Matiangi to oversee the development projects to stop what was becoming an untidy image on launched but unfunded projects, across the country.
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4. PRE-EMPTYING THE PRESIDENT
The DP has had the odd habit of listing all the projects within a region and presenting the work being done as based on his intervention, every time before he introduces the President. This means it always looks like it is the DP behind a local development project, not the President. It also means the President is put in a position where he cannot explain or own projects his government is implementing, when he does get up to speak.
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5. UNDERMINING THE PRESIDENT POLITICALLY;
To show his contempt for the directives of the President against premature 2022 campaigns the DP co-opted, organized and mobilized MPs from the President’s own political backyard, and co-opted them into his 2022 campaign band-wagon. He then facilitated them to directly go against the President’s directives against early campaigns and accompanied them, to give them cover and confidence, as they did it. He then introduced a narrative that he is the one who has ‘numbers’ in Jubilee, against the President.
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6. UNDERMINING THE PRESIDENT’s UNITY EFFORTS
The DP and his allies directly and aggressively opposed the handshake the President initiated with his 2017 political competitor Raila Odinga, despite the fact that this handshake was for uniting Kenyans after a very divisive election. The DP even organized and mobilized the President’s political backyard to directly fight the President’s decision, including building the narrative that the President was out of his senses when doing this. The DP went further and led in insults against the President’s partner in this unity bid, publicly calling him a witch-doctor and implying that the President had been bewitched into the unity process, against his will.
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7. BETRAYING THE 2007 ‘Never-Again’ PROMISE
The reason the President and the DP came together in 2012 was a promise that whether they won or lost the 2013 elections they would work together to ensure that the PEV that affected the RV in 2007 never happened again. However the DP through his allies, and though organized elders, continues to suggest that this peace is guaranteed only if Ruto becomes President after Uhuru. Essentially the DP is intimidating and blackmailing the President to supporting him, using the lives of the people from the Rift Valley, and its peace and harmony.
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8. FIGHTING GOVERNMENT POLICIES & PUBLIC OFFICERS
The DP and his allies have fought several government policies including the Nairobi Metropolitan System (NMS), the Housing program, the BBI; Huduma Number, The Public Officers Lifestyle Audit; etc. They have also publicly and viciously fought against officers in government including the DCI, DPP, EACC, Kenya police, Principal Secretaries, Cabinet Secretaries etc. They have also directly and publicly fought the Jubilee Party Leader himself, and his Secretay General.
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(Issued 16/05/20 in Nyeri Town)
The author Hon Ngunjiri Wambugu is the member of parliament for Nyeri Town elected on a Jubilee ticket.
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