NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 15 – Deputy President William Ruto now says that the Jubilee coalition which was formed through a covenant to eliminate politics of hate, division and ethnicity collapsed because the Jubilee Party rejected national inclusive, issue-based and transformative leadership.
Speaking in Kasarani where he was endorsed as the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party’s flagbearer in the August polls, the DP said the ruling party engineered a new frame of national unity in undemocratic way thus dividing the same people it sought to unite.
“It privatized governance and weaponized public policy and institutions. It pursued personal politics of congregating an entitled few to express their individual wishes as community interest and translate their private consensus as national policy,” DP Ruto said.
The DP recounted his political journey in the Jubilee Party and specifically the last 4 years since President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga inked a deal in 2018, saying their vision was abandoned, the Big Four Agenda neglected and that he was sidelined from the government
“Those who remained loyal to our founding vision were shunned, haunted, threatened and then persecuted. This is how we lost four years that would have gifted us with the brilliant blossoming of a beautiful dream which inspired millions of Kenyans in 2013,” said Ruto.
“To his credit, my friend the president did inform me that he needed space to work on his personal legacy as the fourth president. I obliged and this led to my eventual retreat to the margins of a government that I participated in forming.”
The DP however appreciated the circumstances that led to a rift with President Kenyatta saying they have provided him with special moments to interact with the ordinary Kenyans which he is part of.
“The past four years have provided me special moments to be able to engage consistently with ordinary Kenyans. As Deputy President I have worked directly with Wananachi, going to meet them in their villages, their markets, their farms and to have practiced the leadership of listening more and speaking more,” DP Ruto said.
The DP lauded allies in the Jubilee Party who resisted a State-orchestrated witch-hunt designed to tame his ambition to became the fifth President.
Ruto vowed to sustain the momentum to clinch the presidency despite the ruling Jubilee Party’s attempt to stop him.
“I want to thank those of you (elected leaders) who stood with me. You’re made of good metal; you’re made of fine gold,” he said as delegates broke into a thunderous cheer.
“Si uchawi, ni maombi! (It’s not witchcraft, it’s through prayers),” the crowd comprising 5,000 delegates roared.
Ruto’s Jubilee Party breakaway faction boosts of numerical strength with at least 100 lawmakers switching allegiance.
Governors who moved to Ruto’s camp after he claimed the Party for Development and Reforms, a Jubilee Coalition partner, which he rebranded to UDA include Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga), Salim Mvurya (Kwale) and Mutahi Kahiga (Nyeri). ODM’s Josphat Nanok (Turkana) also joined the UDA outfit rising to become one of its luminaries.
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