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Ruto dares Raila to political contest after graft allegations

The Deputy President accused Odinga of using his Personal Assistant Herbert Ojwang to malign him in the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital renovation saga/DPPS

The Deputy President accused Odinga of using his Personal Assistant Herbert Ojwang to malign him in the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital renovation saga/DPPS

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13 – Deputy President William Ruto has dared CORD leader Raila Odinga to a political contest.

The Deputy President accused Odinga of using his Personal Assistant Herbert Ojwang to malign him in the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital renovation saga.

Speaking during the commissioning of a new Kenya Power Substation in Muthurwa, Ruto hit out at the former PM’s assistant describing him as a conman whose intention was to defraud Kenyans using the stalled project.

“How can a conman become a whistle blower? Somebody who was ripping off Kenyans. Brokers, conmen and their group have no place in this administration. My friend the former PM and his PA must keep off from me and if they are interested in a political duel, I am ready,” he said.

The Deputy President revealed that he is the one who stopped the controversial project and warned both Odinga and his assistant that he is ready for an all out war should they persist in their propaganda.

“No amount of intimidation and blackmail will make us change course because we have committed ourselves that Kenya must change and I want to tell the political saboteurs and their personal assistants and the con-men and the brokers that they have no room to continue manoeuvring or manipulating their way in our system,” he stated.

“The other day they went to Parliament. Apparently some political saboteur and his PA went to Parliament to tell us how I stopped their project in Moi Referral Hospital in Eldoret. I want to tell them for free that I stopped the project and they will not implement it in this government,” he indicated.

Parliament has ordered a forensic audit into the award of a tender to upgrade Eldoret’s Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital,

“How can anybody pretend that they want to spend Sh17billion without due process, without a competitive tender process? Sh17 billion can build a brand new referral hospital complete with theatres, consultation rooms,” the DP explained.

Ojwang who was the upgrade’s proposer, last week tabled damning reports and audio clips claiming that the cost of the project had been inflated from the original Sh17 billion to Sh28 billion and further alleged that Ruto pushed him out of a lucrative deal with two Chinese firms.

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The Deputy President however stressed that under no circumstances will the project be allowed to continue since it was fraudulent.

“Under our watch, there will not be any mediocre business as these characters were trying to portray, and let me be absolutely clear, I am the one who stopped the project and I have no apologies to make to them because it was fraudulent, shady and corrupt from the beginning and it has no place under the Jubilee administration,” he stated.

The Nairobi-based businessman, who once served as an aide to former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, said Ruto, through his aide Caleb Kositany exerted immense pressure on him to drop his dealings with the Chinese and the hospital.

Ojwang further claimed that Kericho Senator Charles Keter had agreed to help him stay on the project but on condition that he parts with 50 percent of his commission.

He was to get five percent of the total project to the tune of Sh850 million for securing the business to the Chinese.

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