I have no formal political pact with ODM – President Ruto

 

President William Ruto

President William Ruto has backed former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s remarks to the effect that there is no proper political pact binding the ruling Kenya Kwanza Alliance and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

The head of state maintains that he is careful not to undermine the role of the opposition in the country to conduct checks and balances over his administration noting that this informed the decision not to come up with an alliance with the orange party.

“Let me clarify as the party leader of ODM did, that we did not form a coalition government so that nobody will tell us we are trying to compromise the opposition. We have no formal coalition arrangement,” he said

Instead, President Ruto indicated that his party and Raila’s outfit made a decision to work together on matters they share common ideologies in order to get the country on a development trajectory.

“What we have is running an administration on matters that we have agreed so that we can put the country first and deal with challenges that put Kenya to where it is,”

“The housing programme, it was in the manifesto of ODM and it was in the manifesto of Kenya Kwanza. The UHC programme was on both sides of the divide. There are things that are common between us. And my question is those things that we have no contest about, can we agree on things and move the country forward? And that is how we agreed with ODM on a broad-based government on items that we all agree on,” he explained at a town hall meeting in Mombasa on Sunday evening.

He further noted that the situation in the country over the last few weeks prompted him to reflect deeply on the country’s governance. He said he reached out to a cross-section of leaders but that ODM was the only party that was ready to reason with him.

“I said I am going to consult and I am going to talk to people who are willing to talk to me. There are those who did not want to talk to me and that’s fine, that’s democracy. There are those whom we sat down and we agreed with on the agenda and on what I was going to do,” he said

He further gave reasons why he resorted to forming a broad-based government by co-opting members of the opposition into his cabinet.

“There has been this feeling that maybe this government is made of William Ruto’s friends and buddies. People ask me why I dismissed the whole cabinet and then hired some back. Let me answer it this way, it was necessary to have a fresh start so that even those I have given another opportunity to serve in cabinet must now know that this is new. The terms are different,” he said We may have been friends by now the terms are different.

By Eric Biegon