Unlike his deputy, President Uhuru Kenyatta has lauded Kenyans who participated in the just concluded Kibra by-election for upholding peace.
Deputy President William Ruto has incessantly, since the vote closed, accused his opponents in the mini poll of outmuscling him in the race using violence.
Uhuru, who called on leaders to unite Kenyans, was speaking when he hosted Mt. Kenya caucus at the Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri on Friday.
The President was impressed because no life was lost or property destroyed, an indication he said pointed that the country was headed in the right direction.
“I saw the campaigns in Kibra and I was impressed because all my life Kibra was a no go zone. In Jubilee, we had a candidate and no one was hurt. People voted peacefully. A few people were stoned but no one was killed, no shop was looted… our candidate did not win but I have now believed that Kenya won,” he said.
The Head of State cautioned politicians against hurling insults and hateful messages to avoid plundering the country into another crisis.
“People (politicians) are always on TVs insulting each other…you even ask yourself when do these people sleep,” Uhuru posed.
He was reprimanding the two factions in his party, Kieleweke and Tangatanga, who have been going for each other's throats on the campaign trail.
The Tangatanga camp consists of legislators drumming up support for DP William Ruto’s 2022 presidential bid.
Kieleweke was formed to counter Tangatanga, which was born out of President Uhuru’s criticism of his deputy’s whirlwind tours of the country ostensibly to initiate development projects
BBI Report
The Head of State also took the chance to lobby for the Building Bridges Initiative - a study he commissioned to dig on how to promote reconciliation in the wake of a disputed election in 2017.
He told the meeting that he will make the report of the study public once he receives it for the public debate.
He urged the leaders to air out their views on the BBI report honorably.
The president has been under pressure to give direction on the post-Uhuru political set up for Mt Kenya, even as leaders from the region anticipated the report.
There is more recent political pressure and a need to react to negative perceptions about the poor performance of the economy, rise of the cost of living and the removal of the interest rates caps that many in the region perceive as portending more danger in the coming days.
