President Uhuru Kenyatta speaking during the launch of the BBI report. /MOSES MUOKI.
NAIROBI, Kenya Dec 4 – President Uhuru Kenyatta has lashed out at the Tanga Tanga group of leaders allied to his deputy William Ruto, for confusing Kenyans over the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
Speaking in his native Kikuyu, the visibly angry President castigated leaders “who have been going around the country to poison people against the report” launched last week, saying they will not succeed.
“A week before the report was released, they were going around criticising the report … now that the report is out, they have changed tact … these are people who do not know,” he said, in what was widely interpreted to be directed to his Deputy Ruto and leaders loyal to him.
And he was categorical that Kenyans should “not let any leader dictate to you what you should do.”
“You are not stupid,” he said, “read (BBI report) it for yourselves. You know what you want, Kenyans want peace, unity and the proper use of their resources in a way that will help the local Mwanainchi.”
He was speaking in Mangu, Kiambu County, where he launched a dispensary, declaring, “enough is enough.”
While Ruto and his troops, including a few MPs from Kenyatta’s Mt Kenya region like Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria and Kimani Ichung’wa (Kikuyu) and Ndindi Nyoro (Kiharu), declared they will oppose the report even before it was unveiled, they appear to have changed tact, to offer it conditional support.
The leaders have set themselves on a collision path with Opposition chief Raila Odinga and President Kenyatta who wants the report subjected to a popular vote, instead saying they want it taken to Parliament.
“I’m speaking in anger because wherever you turn, they are making wild allegations. All over in meetings and various gatherings,” Kenyatta said of weekend meetings by Ruto and his loyalists who have made the BBI their pet subject.
This is the first time the President is publicly rooting for the report, five days after he launched it at the Bomas of Kenya on November 27.
The President said Kenyans should not be bombarded with 2022 politics saying “we do not have fools here. We usually wake up very early and when that time comes, only God and yourselves, know who will be voted in.”
He said efforts are geared to ensure Kenyans vote freely without fear of violence as witnessed in previous elections.
Kenya’s darkest day was in 2007-2008 when more than 1,000 people were killed in post-election violence while some 600,000 others were displaced in the disputed presidential election between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga in what culminated to a power-sharing deal.
In 2017, Odinga also disputed a presidential election when he lost to Kenyatta, before he successfully challenged it at the Supreme Court which ordered a rerun in which Kenyatta won, in an election boycotted by Odinga.
The two shook hands in March 2018, in a show of unity that led to the formulation of a task force that formulated the Building Bridges Initiative report released last week.
About The Author
