President Uhuru Kenyatta has broken his silence on allegations that Deputy President William Ruto nearly struck him.
In response to the topic that has dominated political discussion for almost a week, Kenyatta said that if Ruto had dared to slap him, he would have handled it in accordance with the biblical command to “turn to him the other cheek also.”
Addressing a meeting with religious leaders from Mount Kenya at State House, Nairobi, Kenyatta noted that after his election was declared invalid by the Supreme Court, he was willing to give up the seat for the benefit of national peace, which is why Ruto became irritated.
“Let me ask you, because he (my deputy) has been going around telling you that I made a mistake by shaking Raila’s hands, tell me, have you heard since then of chaos or violence between people from different communities? Have we not enjoyed peace since 2018? Tell me the mistake I made, that they say they wanted to slap me for,” said Kenyatta.
According to the President, if such were true, he would have given the DP the other cheek because national peace came before personal power.
After the Supreme Court declared his election invalid, Uhuru stated at a gathering of the clergy that he was prepared to resign “if that would address the political crisis that soon occurred.”
The Head of State continued saying that although the country was dividing, his deputy and other people were not prepared to open a line of communication with the ODM leader Raila Odinga’s then-opposing camp.
The president’s sentiments come after an audio clip of Ruto stating he nearly struck Kenyatta when the latter said he wasn’t interested in running in the rerun election in 2017 surfaced
At a gathering in Ndhiwa, Homa Bay county, Suna East MP Junet Mohamed played the recording that had caused such a stir in politics before the elections in August.
Ruto, however, defended his response to the President’s feelings by asserting that there was no way he would allow Uhuru to hand over the presidency to ODM leader Odinga.
“Uhuru started showing signs of giving up. He told me he wants to go to Ichaweri. He told me that we quit the fight for the presidency. I looked at him and told him, you, it is because of respect but I would have slapped him,” Ruto said.
“Even if I forced Uhuru Kenyatta to be President, is there a problem? Azimio supporters should stop this nonsense. They are spreading a recording saying that Ruto forced Uhuru to be president. If you were me, would you have accepted Uhuru to abandon us with the way we had pushed him?” he added.
The country saw a wave of occasional unrest shortly after the 2017 election results were declared invalid, with Raila, who was leading the defunct National Super Alliance (NASA), asking for the IEBC to be abolished.
According to Raila, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission was no longer credible to hold the repeat election as the Supreme Court had ordered.
In order to remove the IEBC commissioners from their positions, Raila boycotted the repeat election and took to the streets.
Up until March 9, 2018, when Raila and Uhuru made peace with a handshake on the stairs of Harambee House, the tense situation persisted.