Jubilee has ‘rented’ Raila for 2022 – DP William Ruto

Deputy President William Ruto says Jubilee Party has betrayed the agreement he and President Uhuru Kenyatta had. [File, Standard]

Deputy President William Ruto says the ruling party, Jubilee, has “rented” an “outsider” to fly its presidential election flag in the 2022 General Election.

Ruto made the remarks on Wednesday, November 3, when he took his campaign trail to Juja in Kiambu County.

The DP did not directly refer to President Uhuru Kenyatta in his remarks, but said “you are the people who ruined Jubilee Party”.

“You allowed the opponent to take control of operations in Jubilee,” he said, adding: “You’re now trying to resuscitate a party that is dead.”

According to Ruto, Jubilee had a clear Uhuru-succession plan that was “hijacked by people who have since auctioned the party to the opposition”.

“The President and I formed Government in 2013. Today, the eight million Kenyans who voted for us are being deemed to be clueless. They (Jubilee Party officials) have now reached out to the man who speaks a lot of proverbs, seeking to support him in the 2022 presidential race. That’s disrespect,” he said.

Mtu wa vitendawili (the man who speaks a lot of proverbs) is a nickname the DP uses when referring to ODM leader Raila Odinga.

“They’ve rented mtu wa vitendawili [for 2022],” he said.

“It is so unfortunate that out of the eight million people who voted for the President and I, they couldn’t find any of us suitable to occupy the seat, forcing them to hire an outsider, and not just any other outsider, but mtu wa vitendawili,” Ruto said.

“It will go down in history that once upon a time there was a ruling party that collapsed and died, and was eventually sold to the opposition.

“They’re now holding press conferences to auction a dead party. It has never happened anywhere in the world that a ruling party is being auctioned to the opposition. That only happens in Kenya, and it will enter the Guinness World Records,” he said, adding: “They’ve now forced us to build a new party, yet we had one that was vibrant and inclusive.”

President Kenyatta is on the record saying he doesn’t know why the DP “has been antagonising me”.

According to the Head of State, the DP started “antagonising” him the moment he (Ruto) embarked on early presidential campaigns, “yet it was time for us to work for the people”.

Kenyatta said he reached out to Raila Odinga in March 2018 to pacify the country, which, at the time, was divided after the 2017 General Election.

“We were in a very uncomfortable situation as a country after the 2017 polls, and actually all the way to January [2018]. I was seeing a possibility of another [political] crisis erupting similar to the one in 2007. I said: ‘This country doesn’t deserve [to take that route]’,” the President said during his August 23, 2021 interview with senior news editors.

“I took it upon myself to speak with those who were opposing the election [outcome], led by the Honourable Raila Odinga. I told him: ‘We need to engage because at the end of the day we’re both citizens of this republic; whatever our personal feelings or views may be, we have a responsibility – as leaders – to ensure that this country does not find itself in a situation similar to that one of 2007’. At the end of the day, we were able to discuss, and point out some underlying issues that have plagued this country for a long time.”

Kenyatta also denied that he had endorsed Raila Odinga for President.

“It is neither my duty nor responsibility to tell Kenyans how they should vote. However, it is my duty to remind Kenyans, that they need to look at who they vote for, and why they are voting for that person.”

The President is on the record saying he “won’t leave the country in the hands of thieves, who will ruin the legacies set by former President Mwai Kibaki and I.”