Governor Josphat Nanok of Turkana, who is overseeing Deputy President William Ruto’s presidential campaign, has refuted claims that the Kenyan Kwanza candidate is utilizing state monies to support his nationwide campaigning.
His remarks follow a supposed letter to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) from the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party, which allegedly questioned the source of DP Ruto’s campaign money.
Prior to the letter, MP Junet Mohamed, the secretary general of the Azimio Council, accused DP Ruto of purposefully spending Ksh. 46 million in public resources on the campaign trail.
The Suna East MP claims that DP Ruto spent Ksh. 23 million on catering and refreshment services during the fiscal year 2022–2023.
Speaking on Citizen TV’s NewsNight program on Tuesday, Nanok argued that DP Ruto was not an exception to the Public Service Act’s prohibition on utilizing public resources improperly while in office.
Nanok claims that DP Ruto’s presidential campaigns are funded by contributions from his party’s supporters and a small group of rich well-wishers.
“I want to state that DP Ruto has not been using State resources. The Kenya Kwanza candidate has been supported by party members and well-wishers,” said Nanok.
Nanok continued by implying that Azimio’s letter to the IEBC was only sent in retribution for the Kenya Kwanza alliance’s letter to the elections body accusing the group of being responsible for the violence that on Sunday disrupted a political gathering in the Jacaranda grounds.
After confrontations broke out between the political parties Kenya Kwanza and Azimio over a double reservation of the premises, police officials had to block off the location to end the mayhem on Sunday.
The Turkana Governor continued by saying that Azimio is still yet to apologize to Kenya Kwanza for the incident.
“I think they are raising those claims because of the violence at Jacaranda which they have not apologised on and it is still the area that we want the Azimio candidate to apologise because there has been violence against the Kenya Kwanza politicians and candidates but we have not gotten the apology,” he said.
Nanok correspondingly stated that efforts to have law enforcement agencies address the grievances have fallen on deaf ears despite Kenya Kwanza reportedly writing to President Uhuru Kenyatta himself.
“We have written a letter to IEBC putting forward our complaint over Jacaranda. We wrote a letter previously on what happened in Nyanza when DP Ruto toured the region a while back and we have also written a letter to President Kenyatta,” said Nanok.
