DP William Ruto vows to make public his pact with Mudavadi

DP William Ruto hosted 150 MPs during the UDA Parliamentary Group meeting at his Karen residence, Nairobi. [Jenipher Wachie, Standard]

Deputy President William Ruto yesterday said details of his political deal with ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetang’ula will be made public once ready.

Dr Ruto who hosted 150 MPs during the UDA Parliamentary Group meeting at his Karen residence, Nairobi, yesterday, said the documents of the political agreement will also be deposited at the Registrar of Political Parties.

On Sunday, Ruto, Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetang’ula publicly acknowledged that they had a political arrangement that will see them move together to the August 9 elections.

Yesterday, the UDA Parliamentary Group discussed how they will work together with ANC and Ford Kenya in Parliament moving forward and the working arrangement in the coming elections.

“The details of our relation will be in documents that we will share in public, we will have to deposit them with the Registrar of Political Parties in due course, Kenyans will get to know the deal,” said Ruto.

The DP said he agreed to work with Mudavadi and Wetang’ula for the sake of unity, and to counter the proliferation of tribal parties.

“We agreed on the need to come together and stop the balkanisation of the country along tribal lines by ODM which is no longer confident of itself and had decided to camouflage in different tribal parties. UDA, ANC and Ford Kenya have become victims of this politics of deceit,” he said.

The DP said they will embark on joint rallies across the country to build a formidable force to counter their competitors and form the next government.

“In the meantime, we are in talks on how to this country from where it is at the moment. That is what is urgent and needs our attention,” he said. On fiscal developments, the MPs in a joint statement expressed concern over attempts by the government to increase the national debt ceiling.

“This unprecedented profligacy has become the intolerable monument of the Handshake Era. Accordingly, the PG resolved to resist any further attempts to burden the people of Kenya with unaccountable debt. Party members have, therefore, resolved to oppose the proposals in the Finance Bill to tax poor people,” said the DP.

DP William Ruto graced the Amani party National Delegates Conference (NDC) at the Bomas of Kenya. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Ruto noted that as a matter of policy, he was opposed to anti-hustler fiscal measures and punitive taxation.

“We look forward to participating vigorously in parliamentary business that will generate pro-hustler measures and policies to address the urgent problems of the majority. As a first step, the UDA PG has also resolved to amend the Budget Policy Statement in order to increase the allocation to counties to 35 per cent,” he said.

“We see this as a practical measure to increase resources to finance service delivery at the real bottom of our socio-economic pyramid,” he added.

The DP noted that they had also agreed to introduce amendments to the Budget Policy Statement and the Supplementary Budget to allocate resources to cushion Kenyans from harsh economic conditions and the impacts of drought.

He said the PG deliberated on the Political Parties Bill, Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, Huduma Bill, Finance, Petroleum Products (Amendment) Bill and regulation of Political Parties Act.

During the meeting the MPs committed to conduct peaceful campaigns. “We, therefore, strongly deplore any form of incitement during the campaign period, or at any other time,” read a statement released after the meeting.