Deputy President William Ruto has warned his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta, to stay out of the August 9 General Election and to get ready to hand over power peacefully to his successor.
Dr. Ruto claimed that over the past five years, President Kenyatta had subjected him to untold suffering and humiliation, but he had made the decision to carry on regardless.
However, he asserted that if UDA won the elections, the President would receive state protection, just like all other former presidents in the nation, and would not face harassment after leaving office.
The UDA presidential candidate led his Kenya Kwanza allies in denouncing alleged meddling and intimidation of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) officials ahead of next month’s elections while speaking to a rally in the South Rift area at Kapkatet Stadium in Kericho County.
“We are not asking for any favour from you, we just want you to discharge your responsibility as the President of Kenya by making sure there are no monkey games along the election process.
“You have a constitutional duty to ensure we have a free, fair and democratic election on August 9. Please, we want to ask you not to allow the security agencies, people with sinister motives, to intimidate, blackmail IEBC or undermine the elections of August 9,” Dr Ruto said.
The DP claimed that if elected president, he would not seek retribution against President Kenyatta but instead would work to change the country’s economic structure in order to give Kenyans more employment opportunities.
“We know you are the chairman of Azimio, please do not confuse that with the duties you have as the President of Kenya. As the President, you have a duty to serve all equally. You can support your project (Mr Odinga), but you have a duty to guarantee the security of 50 million Kenyans,” he said.
The DP pleaded with Kenyans to “have faith in the Kenya Kwanza team to remodel the country’s economy” in order to foster the growth of business and industry and produce jobs for Kenyans.
“Our competitors are children of the privileged and do not understand the suffering the people have endured from a battered economy. By the grace of God we have gotten here and God willing ascend to the presidency,” he said.
“We want President Kenyatta to go home in peace and let us run the government…many of my friends have suffered for standing with me with Kenya Revenue Authority and police dispatched to harass them…but I want to assure everyone that we shall stand with them and we shall win this election, God willing,” he added.
