The Deputy President’s remarks come in the wake of the recent nullification of the election of Peter Munya as the governor of Meru by the Court of Appeal and his alleged fallout with some Members of Parliament from the County/FILE
Ruto urged all elected leaders in the County to cultivate synergy and work as a team noting each leader must be given an opportunity to lead without the crippling supremacy wars.
“Each of these leaders was rightly elected to their positions and they must be accorded the opportunity to fulfill their roles without antagonism that will impede them from realizing their full potential.”
Speaking at Kaaga girls High school where he presided over a fundraiser for the school Ruto observed that political competition was healthy in any democracy but hastened to add that such competition should not be so vicious as to border on enmity.
He gave a personal donation of Sh1 million and another Sh1 million from President Uhuru Kenyatta towards the construction of the school library.
The Deputy President’s remarks come in the wake of the recent nullification of the election of Peter Munya as the governor of Meru by the Court of Appeal and his alleged fallout with some Members of Parliament from the County.
Ruto also revisited the issue of the huge and unsustainable public wage bill, noting that the government will eliminate non essential expenditure from its budget including asking cabinet secretaries to use more economical vehicles like Volkswagen Passat’s , stop buying newspapers for officers, giving them tea in the office and cutting down on unnecessary travels both locally and abroad.
Noting the government was determined to create the necessary momentum for the growth of the economy, Ruto reiterated that corruption, misappropriation or misallocation of public funds and wastage will not be tolerated in the public service.
He said it was envisaged that all this efforts to reduce public wage bill and others will reduce the cost of doing business in the country by up to 40 percent.
“Indeed we intent to have 80 percent of Kenyans on the national grid in the next four years when we shall be generating 5000 megawatts of electricity,” he added.
He said he would support the Bill to be introduced in the Senate by majority leader Prof. Kithure Kindiki on Tuesday to have 60% of the resources devolved to the counties to go towards development and 40 percent towards recurrent .
He also applauded the county governments around the country for doing a good job, saying a majority of them were implementing the policy of devolution well and must be facilitated to succeed by being given more resources for development.
He once again asked farmers in the country including coffee, tea and sugar farmers to take advantage of the new fertilizer prices that he added had been reduced to an average of Sh 2,000 per bag.
The Deputy President commended the church and other religious organization for sponsoring schools and other educational institutions in the country and suggested that the law should be looked at a fresh to repeal sections that impeded religious organizations from school sponsorship.
The leader of the majority in the senate Kithure Kindiki and Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi expressed similar sentiments saying they had directed the Parliamentary Service Commission to deduct 20 percent of their salaries in a bid to reduce the wage bill.
The two leaders and the immediate former governor of Meru Peter Munya acknowledged that leadership wrangles were stifling the development of Meru and required urgent remedy. Munya however declined to participate in any grass root election that will choose a single candidate for jubilee as suggested by Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi.
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