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Give Ruto time to work, Wetang’ula tells Azimio
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ula during a fundraiser in aid of Kiboswa Seventh Day Adventist church in Lelmokwo Ngechek, Chesumei Constituency of Nandi County on March 11, 2023.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula has asked the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya team to give President William Ruto time to deliver on his campaign pledges.
Speaking in Nandi County on Saturday, Mr Wetang’ula, who has continued to avoid the ongoing debate in Kenya Kwanza Alliance merger, said it is unfair for Azimio boss Raila Odinga and his team to say that President Ruto has let down Kenyans when he is barely six months in office.
According to the Speaker, gauging President Ruto’s performance should commence after this year and not the half year he has been in office, depending on the Jubilee administration’s budget.
“Kenya Kwanza has been in power for five months. William Ruto as our President has not rolled out any single budget of his administration. He is still working with the remnants of the previous regime's budget. His first budget will come later this year then you will be able to judge whether he has put your money, and taxes in the right areas,” said Mr Wetang’ula.
“Those whom we competed with are piling a lot of pressure on us so as to derail our development agenda. We must give the winners time to work and we had said as Kenya Kwanza if they win, we will support them. If we win, we expect nothing less from them. That is politics and democracy. I urge Kenyans to focus on regenerating our country, we have a lot of problems, there is drought, hunger, bandits, fuel, and unga among others,” he added.
This comes after Mr Odinga launched what he describes as a campaign of defiance of peaceful picketing, peaceful protests, boycotts, strikes, disobedience, peaceful petitions, peaceful sit-ins and peaceful demonstrations.
Already, Mr Odinga has signaled the return of product-boycott, saying his team would release a list of businesses Kenyans should not deal with.
The product boycott would mirror his 2018 resistance against the Jubilee administration when Mr Odinga listed some firms whose products and services opposition supporters were to avoid.
Mr Odinga, who led the National Super Alliance (Nasa) then, said opposition supporters would boycott the products from companies for benefiting from a regime he labeled illegitimate.
Nasa accused a telecommunications firm of aiding the rigging of the August 2017 election in favour of Uhuru Kenyatta.
Mr Wetang’ula who was accompanied by area governor Stephen Sang, Senator Samson Cherargey, Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and MPs Paul Biego (Chesumei), Abraham Kirwa (Mosop) and Julius Melly (Tinderet) also asked the President to focus on reinventing the country’s almost upending economy and not to be distracted by the opposition’s activities.
“I have told President William Ruto that Winston Churchill said that you will never finish your race if you stop to throw stones at every barking dog. Focus on your journey, serve the people of Kenya and that is where your legacy will be. We advise those in the opposition that we do not have a spare country. We all have a duty to keep Kenya peaceful and safe,” said Mr Wetang’ula.
