RESPONSE TO WILLIAM RUTO’S CARELESS REMARKS.
We are alive to the massive struggle by the deputy president in the past few days to bury the news of his fake assassination plot and its flat failure to generate the sympathy he desperately needed and hoped for.
And so we are not surprised that today, Ruto has gone on a tangent again, ranting and cursing with the characteristic anger and bitterness at Raila Odinga, the man Ruto believes owes him the presidency.
Last week, Ruto was on the necks of Cabinet Secretaries perceived to be loyal directly to President Uhuru Kenyatta. He wanted them out of the cabinet.
We are wondering which one was his bigger desire, between seeking sympathy with a non-existent assassination plot and attempting to get CSs out. Today, Ruto was ranting that there never was any corruption with procurement and payments on SGR, NYS or questions on Eurobond.
To Ruto, money stolen from SGR, NYS, the dams, among others, amounted to development. We wish to remind Ruto that in SGR, NYS and others, the corruption therein was flagged by institutions and individuals far from the person of Raila Odinga.
No amount of anger will change the facts. And while he talks about the Northern Collector Tunnel, we wish to remind the DP that the Northern Collector Tunnel at least took off. The ones that were slated for his own Rift Valley people never saw the light of day.
The money meant for them was all stolen and the DP has been fingured as a suspect in the loss of money meant for dams in villages in the Rift Valley. The people around him may not tell him, but there is hardly any corruption in the country in which the name of the DP doesn’t get mentioned.
He has become a joke in the eyes of right thinking Kenyans. He may also want to remember that as DP he cannot make harambees the basis for development. His role is to help the President create an enabling environment for businesses and job creation, so that he doesn’t have to carry money in sacks to go and buy loyalty in the villages in the name of harambees.
There is no greater Lord of Poverty than the one who makes you permanently dependent on handouts and cash-for-favours. We are shocked that Ruto wants us to believe he is a God-fearing man doing charity work of God. Yet to date, Kiambaa Church lies in ruins in his neighborhood.
His cronies and hatchet people were on the forefront of mocking maize and cane farmers whose only mistake was to demand their dues from the government he purports to be second in command.
Deliberate, delivery of fake fertilizer that ruined millions of livelihoods can be traced to his allies and himself. Destroying agriculture is the highest bid a rotten wheeler dealer that he is can make in a permanent move to leave many not only poor and desperate but hopeless.
The DP likes to remind everyone who cares to listen that he is the second in command. Yet his obsession with someone he calls “Lord of Poverty” underlines a deep insecurity, painting him as one not sure of himself and his worth. It is a common trait among people who burn bridges.
But we will not stop reminding him that Raila Odinga is not the problem; the problem is his vile character and juvenile politics. Let him break down to the people how Eurobond was spent, the cost of SGR and the debt attached to it, how the dams money was lost.
While at it, he may want to face the people and answer questions about his fake assassination plot. As the Deputy President, let him stop preaching Raila Odinga and actually work! He is the one in government, not Raila.
We will never tire of reminding the DP that he is his own worst enemy and must confront his demons if he wants to dine at the table of men and women, where H.E. Raila Odinga sits.
For a man who spends so much time hanging around churches, we are amazed he hasn’t found someone competent enough to pray for him to arrest his fast-unravelling political career.
Edwin Sifuna
Secretary General, ODM
1/07/2019
