Azimio presidential candidate, Raila Odinga has criticised The Deputy President William Ruto on his 2500-acre Taita Taveta land claiming that it was acquired through illegal means. The former Prime Minister claimed that this was Ruto’s plan to swindle money off Kenyans.
“This is part of the trickery being used to con Kenyans. The Azimio administration will settle all landless individuals in this country without forceful acquisition of land belonging to private citizens,” the ODM leader said on Saturday.
This was during the funeral of a former ambassador, Burudi Nabwera in his hometown, Kiminini. During the event, Raila Odinga also promised to elevate the Kitale County Referral Hospital to a Level 6 hospital and ensure that the other existing sub-county hospitals were raised to Level 5 hospitals.
Raila’s cohorts, Ali Hassan Joho and Junet Mohammed said that the land Ruto acquired illegally will be returned back to the deserving local community if Azimio got into power. Further, they claimed Ruto’s ownership of the said parcel of land had a disastrous impact on the locals.
“The DP has a huge chunk of land at his Sugoi home so why did he come and get land here. He (DP) is denying local residents water by diverting it to his farm,” alleged Azimio Secretary-General, Junet Mohammed.
Ruto later responded to the claims saying that he had acquired the land through legal means. “I have documents showing how I got my land in the region, let them also show Kenyans the receipts of their land in the region,” he said while addressing rallies in Taveta and Voi town.
He also urged his opponents to produce their documents and explain to the public how some of their leaders acquired huge tracts of land in the coast. “Instead of intimidating me over my legally owned property, let them also tell us how they acquired their over 100,000 acres of land in the Coast region”, divulged the Deputy President.