Governor Waiguru echoes President Uhuru’s call for national unity

Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has supported calls by President Uhuru Kenyatta for national unity and reconciliation, pronounced in his State of the Nation address on Wednesday.

In a statement to media houses on Thursday, Governor Waiguru said Kenya’s future wholly depends on the willingness by its leadership to put aside their political differences, disregard ethnic bias and focus on national healing.

“The people of Kenya are supreme and as leaders, we should be open to working with each other to improve their living standards. By disregarding our political standings and working together, we will ensure the realisation of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda of providing universal healthcare, affordable housing, improving the manufacturing sector and ensuring Kenya is a food-secure nation,” she said.

“The unity call by His Excellency President Kenyatta should, therefore, be echoed across the country. We cannot allow ourselves to get stuck in retrogressive politics and expect to move the nation forward.”

During the Devolution Conference held in Kakamega last week, Waiguru was among the Jubilee leaders who warmly welcomed former Prime Minister and ODM leader Raila Odinga who had been invited as a keynote speaker.

Waiguru and Raila, who until then could not see eye-to-eye owing to their political differences, observably exchanged niceties and pleasantries on a day that ended with Raila making a stop at the Kirinyaga County Stand at the Exhibition tent on the sidelines of the main conference.

In his State of the Nation address on Wednesday, President Kenyatta said that the handshake between him and Raila Odinga signified their selfless resolve to put aside their political differences for the sake of national unity, further asking anyone whom he had wronged in the course of last year’s campaigns to forgive him.

“When he (Raila) and I met earlier in the year, we agreed to work together to strengthen the unity of our country.

“Our handshake invited Kenyans to rediscover what they had known all along: when all the politics is said and done, we are each other’s keeper,” said the president.

Following the President’s call for unity, Deputy President William Ruto sent out a statement of reconciliation to his political nemeses.

“In keeping with HE's (President Kenyatta’s) statement, l WSR (William Samoei Ruto) unreservedly apologise to anyone offended or hurt in any way by what I have said or done at any time. Find it in your heart to forgive me. I have forgiven all those who wronged me. Let's embark on building the bridges of friendship and unity,” he stated.