Stop exploiting Kenyans in quest for power, President Ruto tells Raila Odinga
President William Ruto addressing a crowd at Lunyerere Mbale in Vihiga County on July 22, 2023.
President William Ruto has accused the opposition of being selfish in their quest for political power by allegedly exploiting the youth from poor families whom he claimed they misused to engage in demonstrations while keeping their own families out of the dangers of public protests.
Although the President did not name any of the opposition leaders, his lieutenants went on overkill viciously attacking retired President Uhuru Kenyatta as the invisible force behind the demonstrations.
The leaders spoke a day after Mr Kenyatta rejected claims he was funding the protests and dared Dr Ruto to arrest him if he had committed any crime.
The former Head of State asked the State to stop harassing his 90-year-old mother and children, saying the attacks and intimidation were unjustified.
“Your children are not in these public demonstrations; your families are not in these demonstrations, but your money is in those demonstrations. You use your money to pay the youth from poor families to partake in the demonstrations but because you love your children, you have sent them to Parliament, others overseas and others on other business engagements,” President Ruto told the opposition in Vihiga and Nyamira counties.
“You exploit children of other Kenyans, encourage them to carry stones and other crude weapons to confront the police, destroy property and private businesses and destroy Kenya. You think you will exploit these youths for your selfish political objectives.”
He urged the youth to ask the opposition to bring their children and lead the protests before enlisting children from poor families.
“Before you agree to participate in these demonstrations, ask the opposition, where is your wife on this? Where are your children?” said President Ruto.
“I urge fellow leaders that whatever it is; whatever disagreements we have, we must be responsible to know we have one nation called Kenya and we cannot sabotage and destroy our nation.”
He said the same way the opposition protect their families by ensuring they had jobs and lived in safety, he too had the responsibility of protecting vulnerable Kenyan children and families.
Dr Ruto said the demonstrations amounted to economic sabotage.
He gave cited concerns allegedly expressed by a Chinese investor on how Kenya expected to be assisted with infrastructure development yet they got destroyed by people he described as hooligans.
Police raid
The President who spoke a day after the police raided the home of former President Kenyatta’s eldest son in Karen maintained that his administration would not tolerate impunity and will take firm and decisive action against the people who allegedly broke the law.
Although he steered clear of the Friday night police raid at his predecessor’s son purportedly looking for firearms, Prime Cabinet secretary Musalia Mudavadi alluded to the incident when he claimed that during President Kenyatta’s tenure, police raided his residence in search of illegal weapons and that he did not make it a big deal.
Mr Mudavadi said during the regime of retired President Kenyatta, he was harassed by police who raided his residence looking for alleged illegal weapons but he did not make any noise.
“Impunity must end. Even when Uhuru was the president, police came to my home to look for firearms…. they said they wanted to see if I was properly licensed because I was not above the law. We all must respect the law,” he said.
Mr Mudavadi said all Kenyans must submit to the law and should not cry wolf when police officers come knocking to conduct security searches.
“It is the handshake government that killed the economy through uncontrolled borrowing and its owners have resorted to demonstrations to further scuttle efforts by Dr Ruto to revive the economy,” he said.
National Assembly Chief Whip Silvanus Osoro who hosted the president in Kisii sensationally alleged that police were looking for “hundreds of guns” purportedly kept at home of President Kenyatta’s son.
Mr Osoro attacked the retired president calling on Dr Ruto to remove Kenyatta as his regional ambassador of peace in the troubled African countries of DRC, Somalia and Sudan.
Dr Ruto was in Kisii presiding over 100 Women Groups Meeting at Etago Green Stadium, South Mugirango Constituency on Saturday.
National Assembly Majority Leader Mr Kimani Ichung’wa, who had accompanied him, hit back at Mr Kenyatta for saying he peacefully handed over power despite having supported a rival presidential candidate.
“He said he is a democrat and that he handed over power. He never did us any favour. He handed over power because it is a constitutional obligation,” said the Kikuyu MP.
While reiterating his role to unite the country as the Head of State, Dr Ruto cautioned those who go against the law that nobody will get away with impunity.
“I have been asked to be tough on those people (in reference to Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga). I am now the father of the nation and will slowly engage them until they get back on track,” said Dr Ruto.
Speaking in Mbale in Vihiga County, earlier on, after commissioning the Sh1.7 billion water project the President urged his opponents to put politics behind to enable the Kenya Kwanza government to deliver on what they promised Kenyans.
Bloodshed
“These people (opposition) are causing fighting and bloodshed. Kenyans did their part by voting. Let them wait for 2027 so that we can defeat them again,” he said.
President Ruto however asked opposition leaders to instead put their own children in the frontline in the demonstrations instead of using other people’s children.
“They should bring back their own children from the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA) to take part in the demonstrations,” said Dr Ruto.
“It is Ruto who will help us get out of that hole. Those who were players in the handshake government are now complaining that they are being targeted,” he said.
President Ruto thanked the residents of Vihiga for not taking part in the protests against increased cost of living as he assured them of the government’s commitment to address the situation.
“The prices of food cannot come down through demonstrations and picketing but by going to our farms and ensure increased food production,” he said.
He stated that his administration had managed to cut down fertiliser prices from Sh7,000 to Sh3,500 and noted that the price will drop further to Sh2,500 in the next two weeks in time for the second planting season.
Reporting by Ruth Mbula, Derick Luvega and Victor Raballa
