Deputy President William Ruto on Sunday said that no community owed him any political debt even as his critics threatened to push for his impeachment for allegedly disobeying the President.
Speaking at separate events in Nairobi and Nyandarua, Dr Ruto hit out at some politicians in Jubilee telling them to stop tribalism, propaganda and division as it is against the party’s ideals.
He said that he will not be cowed by those against him, adding that he is the elected Deputy President and would continue criss-crossing the country initiating and inspecting projects.
“I am now the one in charge of the country since the President is out of the country and not the other group. I have been doing the work I was elected together with President Uhuru Kenyatta to develop the country,” said Mr Ruto at Revival Church in Dagoretti.
While referring to talks of an unpaid political debt between him and President Kenyatta, the DP said that he only knows of two debts; the national debt and the one the Jubilee administration owes Kenyans on account of the party’s campaign pledges.
He criticised National Assembly Minority Leader John Mbadi for his Bill seeking to limit harambee donations at Sh100,000 saying that “you cannot compete with God”.
In Murang’a, more than 20 members of the so-called Kieleweke team said that Dr Ruto had shown little support for the Big Four agenda, the Building Bridges initiative and other government projects. Nominated MP Maina Kamanda said the DP had defied the President calls to stop early campaigns.
Tiaty MP William Kamket said MPs are ready to push for the quest to amend the Constitution and give the President powers to fire his deputy in case of insubordination.
Kangema MP Muturi Kigano said: “Antagonising the President who is the symbol of national unity amounts to gross misconduct.”
Mr Kamanda said there were many leaders who had been brought up by poor families and did not keep reminding the electorate for sympathy votes. He added that most Kenyans knew the source of Dr Ruto’s wealth.
“His rhetoric that he is a son of a peasant is neither here nor there. He claims that he had no shoes while he was in school but I want to tell him that some of us could not afford even shirts but we don’t seek sympathy out of it,” Mr Kamanda said and thanked the President for recent appointment of Kieleweke team members to public jobs.
He said the Kieleweke team came together after realising that those elected to defend the President had been bought.
In Nyandarua, DP Ruto’s allies dismissed the elders who met in Nyeri on Saturday to denounce him. The politicians called the elders “prophets of doom” and said that the event was sponsored by politicians and business people in Nairobi opposed to the DP.
Mr Ruto said that, as a government, the goal is unite everyone “so that we can move forward as a country”. He warned those using old guards to push their political agenda, saying Kenyans have no time for petty politics.
“We must stick together as Jubilee family and be guided by our manifesto. We should be ware of false prophets who are after derailing our development agenda,” he said and asked Kenyans to ignore “the political noises around.”
Reported by Waikwa Maina, Ndungu Gachane and Collins Omulo
