MP Caleb Amisi: Why I have never met Ruto

Saboti MP Caleb Amisi [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Saboti MP Caleb Amisi has faulted parliamentarians from the Luhya community who warmed up to President Ruto during his three-day tour of Bungoma County that culminated in the 61st Madaraka Day fete held at Masinde Muliro Stadium on Saturday, June 1.

Amisi says that the meetings between the president and local leaders were held in the guise of lobbying for development projects when they bear no tangible material benefits for the electorate.

“There can never be a conversation between the president and members of the National Assembly. The president cannot dish out development projects because he has no constitutional power to do that. It is the MPs who appropriate money for the projects,” he said on Spice FM, on Monday morning. 

The ODM lawmaker argues that his hardline position against such blatant ‘tokenism’ has led to his exclusion from all meetings of parliamentarians with the president.

"I can never be invited. They invite all MPs except Caleb Amisi. I'm the only elected leader from Western Region who has never met President Ruto because my principles and his are like day and night," stated MP Amisi.

“They never call me to such meetings because they know I’ll embarrass the president. They don’t want him to be embarrassed because they won’t get that little money they want from him,” he alleged.

He has also questioned the formula used to arrive at the projects done prior to the national event saying that some such as the military-built Matulo Airstrip adds little to the locals but was implemented nonetheless to impress President Ruto.

“We are not going to have flights landing in that airstrip. It is going to be idle, grass will grow on it until another Madaraka Day. That’s when they’ll do a renovation because there are planes landing on it. It was just the first army plane carrying the president that landed there and that will be it,” he said.

“The amount of money used on that particular day runs to the tune of Sh 900 million. You can imagine how many roads could have been constructed across my constituency which is always rated as the only one with no tarmac roads,” he lamented.

Bungoma Town received a facelift ahead of the presidential visit benefiting from an upgrade of some roads to bitumen standard, street lighting, and launch of projects including Bungoma Immigration Office.

According to government spokesperson, Isaac Mwaura, the government incurred a bill of Sh 807 million for the first phase of Masinde Muliro stadium construction and spent Sh 139 million on Matulo Airstrip in the run-up to the event.