Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Published:May 10,2022
By Irene Mwangi
Deputy President William Ruto.
Nairobi — Deputy President William Ruto has maintained that he will not resign despite calls by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his handshake partner Raila Odinga pushing him to exit government.
Ruto insisted that the demands for him to resign are totally unfounded as he has not failed to deliver in any given government assignment assigned to him.
“I want to ask them to point out any single assignment, any advice or any call that the President directed to my office and failed. I have discharged all responsibilities that the President directed to me or to my office accordingly,” said Ruto
President Kenyatta had accused him of doing nothing to help in addressing the rising cost of living.
During the Labour Day celebrations at the NyayoStadium on Sunday, President Kenyatta, blasted his deputy for faulting him over the rising cost of living yet he is not the cause.
“Instead of coming to help me and offer your advice, you are busy in the market abusing people and you are calling yourself a leader of a higher rank. You should have left long ago I get some else to help me work,”said President Kenyatta.
Ruto further castigated Odinga asking him to resign saying that he nothing to offer to Kenyans and should retire with President Kenyatta come August 9th.
“You are old enough to retire from politics and go home,” said Ruto.
The 2022 presidential hopeful poured cold water on the campaign pledge by Odinga to fight corruption in the country saying his liutetnants are currently raiding the coffers in the Jubilee Administration.
“We now know that his purported fight against corruption was merely lip-service because his lieutenants have raided Kenya Medical Supplies Authority and stole money that was meant for purchase of drugs and other medical essentials for the benefit of Kenyans,” he claimed.
Ruto has been at loggerheads with the government in which he serves after a bitter fall-out with his boss President Kenyatta since March 2018 when the latter shook hands with Opposition leader Raila Odinga.
The DP said he sees the handshake as a plot to lock him out of the 2022 State House race in which he hopes to succeed President Kenyatta whose second and final term will be ending.
President Kenyatta and his deputy have now turned foes by throwing insults at each other in recent weeks as the succession politics hots up, with Kenyatta declaring publicly that he won’t allow Ruto to succeed him.
Kenyatta is openly campaigning for Opposition leader Raila Odinga who was endorsed recently as the AzimioLa Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate.
allafrica.com
