Uhuru to Raila: Stop smear campaign

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto yesterday accused the Opposition of embarking on a smear campaign in a bid to promote voter apathy in his support base.

While kicking off a tour of Central Kenya in Nyeri yesterday, Uhuru and Ruto singled out ODM leader Raila Odinga as being behind a propaganda war to paint the government as inept and corrupt.

They also accused the media of trying to create an image that the Government had lost popularity in his backyard.

Speaking in the wake of anticipated voter apathy in his Mt Kenya backyard, President Kenyatta claimed there has been a systematic plot to paint the government in bad image ‘’after the Opposition realised that the government had achieved a lot.’’

Telling Central residents to disregard the propaganda, Uhuru enumerated the achievements of his government for the past four years.

BAG OF GOODIES

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Armed with a bag of goodies in form of development projects worth billions of shillings, the President urged his backyard not to “listen to the Opposition’s lies since my government is delivering’.’

“We know they have engaged in a propaganda war and painting the Government in a negative way but Kenyans are not fools. They can see what the government has done,” he said.

After commissioning medical equipment at Nyeri Referral Hospital, Kenyatta accused Raila of going on missions abroad to discredit the government and scaring away investors.

“He is spreading falsehoods to our development partners that money is not being put to good use. He should visit hospitals across the country and see what we have done,” Uhuru said.

President Kenyatta also said it was time for Raila to quit the political arena “as the government was ready to take care of him in retirement”.

“Instead of using all his time to criticise all the development projects being undertaken by the Government, he (Raila) should rest. Aende apumzike ashafanya yake, (Let him go and rest as he has done his part),” Uhuru said in Mukurwe-Ini.

He said he had respect for Raila and his Opposition leaders and urged them to let him deliver his mandate.

The two leaders accused Raila of spreading malicious lies and playing “petty politics” to discredit the government as it fulfilled its development agenda. They said no money had been lost through Eurobond and in the health ministry.

At the same time, President Uhuru, without mentioning his name, accused an Opposition leader of frustrating economic development in the country through false allegations of corruption that made it difficult for the country to access donor funding.

“In 2007, the economy had grown by 8 per cent but after he (Raila) became Prime Minister, the growth slowed to 0.5 per cent as a result of post-election violence. When he was given job by (Former) president Kibaki, it was all rhetoric without any service delivery,” President Uhuru said in Naru Moru.

And yesterday, Ruto played down reports of voter apathy insisting that they were lies peddled by the Opposition and the media.

The DP said the region was still as enthusiastic as they were in 2013. This was his second visit to the region in as many weeks. He was in Nyeri two weeks ago where he launched the construction of the Karisheni-Naru Moru Road.

Nyeri Governor Nderitu Gachagua, who alongside Nyeri Town MP Esther Murugi, has been charged with leading the President’s re-election bid told people to register as voters and acknowledged Nyeri was lagging behind.

With the announcement of several key projects in the region, the President is also keen to prove that he has not neglected his political backyard.