Uhuru's failures in second term are his alone, says DP in UK tour

DP William Ruto at Chatham House, UK. [Twitter, @WilliamsRuto]

Deputy President William Ruto yesterday resumed his assault on President Uhuru Kenyatta, terming the alleged failures in second term as the president’s alone.

In a forum at Chatham House in the UK, Dr Ruto said he had played no role in the second term, alleging that President Kenyatta did not want him to play a significant role.

He dismissed Mr Kenyatta’s claim he had failed in the ministerial dockets assigned to him in the first term, saying that he never shared the responsibility of driving government with the president.

“I didn’t appoint no (any) minister anywhere. Everybody was appointed by the president,” said Dr Ruto, who added that he only played the DP role in their first term.

“Unfortunately, in our second term, because of the political dynamics that came into play, the president told me that he wanted to do things differently. He didn’t want what had become normal in Kenya as ‘UhuRuto’, he wanted ‘Uhuru’,” he added, saying that Uhuru had wanted the second term to be about his legacy.

He said that he did not need Mr Kenyatta to triumph in the August 9 elections, adding that his United Democratic Alliance would see him succeed in defeating ODM leader Mr Raila Odinga, who he termed “a project of the system and the deep state”.

He said he had confidence that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) would conduct a free poll.

But he expressed fear that the president may not hand over power to him if he wins the election, calling on the international community to intervene.

“What we need is that... our friends in the international community speak to all candidates so that they can commit in public to accept the outcome of this election,” Dr Ruto said.

The DP said that his opponents had built their politics around personalities, a move he said made them fragile against UDA, which he called “the largest and the most popular political party”.

“I’m asked, ‘how will you succeed in your presidential campaign unless you have the support of Uhuru Kenyatta or the other guy?’” said Dr Ruto.

He said his Kenya Kwanza alliance that comprises ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetangula would triumph as it was based on bringing people together based on a national agenda.

DP William Ruto, ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi, and Ford Kenya's Moses Wetangula at Kenyatta Stadium, Kitale. [DPPS]

The DP claimed that the Azimio la Umoja side had failed to institutionalise their political parties, instead subscribing to what he termed “personality cults.”

Dr Ruto further claimed that previous attempts to build national parties - ODM and Jubilee - had failed as a result of the alleged reluctance of his former partners, Uhuru and Raila, to institutionalise their parties.

An evidently irked Ruto could not hide his distaste in the fact that the president had picked Mr Odinga as his choice of successor.

“There is no government and there is no opposition,” the DP added on the first day of his three-day trip of the UK. He said that functioning democracies should have distinctions in what government was and what the opposition was.

The DP further claimed that government was shielding perpetrators of corruption.

“If you have challenges of having stolen from the public, you only need to be a friend (of the government); you only need to profess that you support the handshake, and the BBI (Building Bridges Initiative) and you will have no consequences,” Ruto said.

The DP criticised his competitor’s intention of pushing for the BBI if they win the election in what he said was an attempt to weaken the Judiciary and reintroduce an imperial presidency.

Dr Ruto said he would focus on creating jobs through “deliberate investment in areas that are labour intensive.