PRESS STATEMENT
If there was any proof that Deputy President William Ruto is a divisive character then the events of the last two days provides the clearest pointer. Just a day after he appeared to have abandoned his intransigence and joined the BBI in Mombasa, he turned around and summoned his Tanga Tanga MPs to a meeting in Naivasha which we can only say was meant to thrust the DP’s finger in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s eye.
In Mombasa, through Senate Majority Leader Hon. Kipchumba Murkomen, DP Ruto gave a public undertaking that the he had decided to join the ongoing BBI consultative rallies for the good of a one united country.
Fellow Kenyans, make no mistake, DP Ruto finds it very hard to accept that Kenya’s political dispensation has changed to include everyone. This is where the problem is. He still has not accepted that President Uhuru decided to open his government up for all Kenyans, and that it is President Uhuru’s wish to run his second term with that understanding.
For DP Ruto, fellow Kenyans, a divided country and a divisive political climate was his pathway to power, and remains his best bet for 2022.
Fellow Kenyans, if the Naivasha meeting was surprising, coming soon after their declaration in Mombasa, it is the demands that came out of it that have shocked us:
1. The Naivasha meeting underlined the DP’s deceitful nature and corrupt tendencies. Through acts of political brinkmanship, he mobilised MPs without having the decency to inform the President, who is not only the leader of the Jubilee Party but the Head of State and Commander-In-Chief. It is our firm belief that the rationale of the Naivasha meeting was a dirty scheme by the Deputy President to undermine President Uhuru Kenyatta. It goes without saying that the hangovers of the Jubilee Party first term in office have not escaped the DP. He is running a parallel system whose only purpose is his desperation for power.
2. Of the demands made by Tanga Tanga, we find the one that is calling for allocation of Sh3.5 per cent of national revenue to the Judiciary Fund strange and alarming. First, the Judiciary Fund has been with us for the last ten years. So, what is the urgency and Just when did Ruto know that Judiciary is suffering from a cash crunch.
3. More importantly, we find it suspicious that the demand comes just after the President and Chief Justice meeting on Monday in which the issue of funding cropped up. For avoidance of doubt, we consider the demand as an extension of Ruto’s everlasting corrupt tendencies. The DP wants to win the fervor with the Judiciary in the hope that judicial officers will go easy on his corruption cases and those of his allies that are pending in judiciary.
4. There is more to be said about the demand for the state to set aside 5 per cent of the national revenue to farmers. Ruto has controlled the agricultural sector since the grand coalition, when he served as the Minister. He then appointed his crony William Bett and we have every reason to believe that Mwangi Kiunjuri was also his person. It goes without saying that the sector is in a mess because of Ruto’s own doing and the proposal for a 5 per cent allocation, is meant to clean the mess that he, and his surrogates, have left behind.
5. In any case, it is clear that the Budget Committee which has the constitutional mandate to determine budgetary allocations is controlled by Ruto men. The chairman Kimani Ichungwa is a known Ruto surrogate. So why did they not implement these good ideas since 2017 when they took over the committee?
6. Ruto is throwing tantrums at the President but he lacks the courage to do so, opting to use his sycophants. We encourage the DP to man up and walk out of his own shadow and face the President. This is because the shadow boxing will not do. Ruto has opposed BBI since inception and his behavior is hardly surprising. But what did not expect is the childish behavior the DP is subjecting the president to. If he thinks he has grown politically and can stand on his own, let him resign and let the President to deliver.
THANK YOU.
January 28, 2020.
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