Ruto is Kenya’s enemy number one, say ODM MPs

Opposition leader Raila Odinga's allies ignited a fierce row with Jubilee after accusing Deputy President William Ruto of holding the country hostage to prop up his bid to succeed President Kenyatta.

The six MPs were responding to Ruto’s remarks on Sunday, in which he asked Raila to accept that he lost the 2017 elections.

Ruto had also questioned the motive of Raila's handshake with President Kenyatta.

Yesterday, the Opposition MPs tore into Ruto’s character, which they claimed is the major stumbling block in his path to becoming president in 2022, and not Raila. “We wish to advise Mr Ruto to stop looking for enemies in the wrong places. In his quest to be President, Ruto is the enemy he is looking for," the MPs said in a statement at Orange House yesterday.

Problem trusting

“Ruto comes out as an angry and bitter man, looking for revenge. Kenyans have a problem trusting their country and their children with such a bitter and seemingly vengeful man,” they said.

“Ruto has the exclusive distinction of being the only politician who is starting the race for the presidency of Kenya with hostages.”

The statement was signed by Kwale Woman Representative Zulekha Juma Hassan, her Busia and Homa Bay counterparts Florence Mutua and Gladys Wanga respectively, Mathare MP Anthony Oluoch, his nominated counterpart Geoffrey Osotsi and NASA strategist Koitamet ole Kina. “Ruto and the cohort of politicians who are paid to speak at his rallies are hostage holders. They are blackmailing President Kenyatta and the people of Kenya. The DP and his team want their way by hostage holding," the leaders claimed.

“Give me the presidency or your people are not safe. Do not change the law or your people won’t be safe. That is the hostage holding agenda the DP and his team are pursuing,” they said.

Asked to substantiate the claims, Mrs Wanga said: “We know there has been an underlying fear in Rift Valley and among some communities that if they don’t vote for him, there will be evictions.”

However, Jubilee MPs fired back accusing Raila of dishonesty, with the raging feud likely to unsettle the truce between him and the President, which ended the tension following last year's disputed presidential election.

National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale said Raila and “his brigade” must come to the unity table with honesty, not propaganda. "We welcome ODM to the 2022 contest, where Raila will be humiliated by Ruto. But we shall say loud and clear to ODM and Raila that you cannot talk of uniting the people and you still carry the notion that Jubilee didn’t win the election.

“That decision was made by Kenyans, who in their majority, elected President Uhuru and gave majority in Parliament, and county governments," said Duale.

Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa claimed it was Raila, not Ruto, that was holding the country hostage using threats and intimidation.

“It is Odinga who has a track record of using ethnicity as a tool to advance his shallow politics and has over the years exploited divisive politics to advance his selfish political agenda,” said Mr Ichung’wa.

“It is this same Odinga, in his true element, that we now see using his battery of blind puppets to accuse others,” Ichung’wa claimed.

He urged Raila to “remain true” to the spirit of bringing unity to Kenya with “sincerity.”

“He owes it to Kenya since he had played a pivotal role in the political and ethnic divisions Kenya has experienced over the years, as they have all revolved around his raw and unchecked ambition for power,” Ichung’wa said.

But the ODM MPs further claimed: “We are all aware that in the last term, the Government is unable to move on anything because of Ruto’s hostage antics."

The lawmakers said senior public officers and other civil servants “were constantly living in fear of losing jobs due to Ruto’s phone calls.”

They said it was hypocritical for Ruto to oppose the push to amend the Constitution yet he had opposed it. “He vehemently opposed the 2010 Constitution on grounds it had loopholes. Now, when we call for the fixing of the loopholes, he retorts that the Constitution must not be changed. That hypocrisy is standing between him and the Presidency,” claimed the MPs.