‘You’ll be safe in my hands’, DP Ruto assures Uhuru
Deputy President William Ruto has noted that President Uhuru Kenyatta has wrongly judged him as incapable of protecting his interests while outside government.
Speaking in Murang’a county yesterday while accompanied by his Kenya Kwanza Alliance(KKA), Ruto stated that the President is his friend and that he will not betray that friendship even when he retires.
“We have been through many challenges together including facing the International Criminal Court (ICC) with him…. We faced Raila Odinga’s opposition together in 2002, 2013 and twice in 2017. I also consider myself to be his friend. It was a mistake to alienate me from Odinga,” he said.
His army, on the other hand, accused the President and his advisers of capturing the national economy to the point where it is controlled by cartels and brokers.
They claimed that the end result has been an exclusionary economy that benefits only the wealthy.
The exclusionist nature of the economy, according to Ruto, has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, with the middle class now bearing the “cruel effects of taxation.
“My government will ensure that tenders can be bided for and won competitively, export and import licences be liberalised and taxation brackets be commensurate with earnings.
Above all, we will ensure indigenous companies are protected from unfair competition by multinationals,” he said.
Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi, on the other hand, accused President Uhuru’s administration of excluding Ruto from his constitutional mandate of deputising the president.
“The systematic alienation of Ruto from the seat of power was for purposes of consolidating economic opportunities to an exclusive club. They have borrowed Sh8 trillion and intend to go on until they hit Sh12 trillion by August 9. That is money that has gone to a selected few but which will be paid for with interest by all of us,” he said.
“These people around the President calling others thieves are the true reflection of how thieves look – both by birth, occupation and practice,” Mudavadi said.
