President William Ruto has rubbished comments by opposition leader Raila Odinga that he does not recognise his government, saying he is Kenya’s only Head of State and is focused on developing the country.
Dr Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua insisted that the August 2022 elections were over and that the decision of the Supreme Court, which ruled in their favour, was final. He said Kenyans, including Mr Odinga and Azimio la Umoja Coalition, should move on.
The Head of State said he would not be party to any politics at a time when the country needs fixing in almost every sector. He said that he was too busy working on improving the welfare of Kenyans regardless of which party they voted for in the past polls.
“Let me inform those who still want to take us back to politics that the time for politicking is over. They should allow me to plan this job because they were defeated and could not do it (win the elections),” he said.
He wondered why opposition chiefs were asking suffering Kenyans to attend their rallies and demonstrations.
Poor Kenyans
“Your children are in parliaments in Arusha yet you want the children of the poor Kenyans to come for riots in Kamukunji and Jacaranda grounds? We will follow the path of development and not that of exchanging words,” he said.
Mr Odinga’s daughter, Winnie, and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka’s son, Kennedy Kalonzo, were voted as part of the nine-member Kenyan team at the Arusha-based East Africa Legislative Assembly.
President Ruto said that he will work for all Kenyans including those who did not vote for him.
“I will make sure every citizen is part of the journey of development in Kenya regardless of which side they voted for. There is no other President of Kenya, I am the only one,” Dr Ruto said.
President William Ruto with grader operator Patrick Mbindyo during the groundbreaking ceremony for the proposed Shauri Moyo ‘A’ affordable housing project on January 27, 2023.
Mr Gachagua said Dr Ruto was overworking and many leaders were struggling to keep up with his fast pace.
“Those people who say they do not recognise William Ruto as President are dreaming and when they are done dreaming, they will still find that Kenya’s President is William Sameoei Ruto,” he said.
The DP criticised some members of the Nairobi County Assembly who took part in the Azimio rallies at Kamukunji grounds yet still requested to be secretly introduced to the President.
“We must first interrogate people who go do their other things then still want to come here asking to be taken to the President. Leave those ones to me, I will weigh them on the weighing scale and confirm if they are good people before taking them to the President,” he said.
The two leaders spoke on Friday during the ground-breaking ceremony of the affordable housing project in Shauri Moyo, Nairobi.
The project seeks to construct 3,428 housing units in the area. However, the number of units could go up after the President ordered the increase in the number of storeys from 16 to 25 to end the housing crisis in the capital city. The houses will comprise studio, one-bedroom, two- and three-bedroom units whose occupants will pay mortgages in form of monthly rents for 15 to 20 years before they own the units.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja said that unemployment, lack of water, degraded river conditions and lack of electricity still proved a headache for several people living in Shauri Moyo and the surrounding slums of Kinyago, Biafra and Kiambiu. He urged the President to firmly deal with the challenges.
“It is unfortunate that in 2022, people in the capital city are still using candles and paraffin lamps to light their homes yet we want to create an orderly city,” he said.
Kenya Power
This, he said, was after Kenya Power cut off the power supply in Blue Estate, Kinyago and Biafra slums in its fight against illegal power connections.
President Ruto issued a directive to Kenya Power not to deny people electricity but to determine a way of ensuring they paid for the units they consume.
“If a citizen is already connected with power from whatever means, come put a metre and charge them, if they do not pay, cut the power line, but if they do not refuse to pay, why cut the power supply?” he posed.
However, Governor Sakaja lauded the housing project saying it was the surest way of ensuring many citizens of Nairobi got affordable yet decent homes. He promised to support the national government’s projects.
Kamukunji MP, Yusuf Hassan called on the government to create more employment opportunities for the youth and also deal with the issue of lack of title deeds affecting a majority of the residents who cannot put permanent structures on their pieces of land for lacking the crucial document. BY DAILY NATION