Deputy President William Ruto had a heart in mouth moment on Tuesday, January 21, after he made a remark regarding England that rubbed the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby the wrong way.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England.
Archbishop Welby had paid a courtesy call to DP Ruto at his Harambee Annex office, where they held a lengthy discussion regarding the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report.
As the lively conversation heated up, DP Ruto accidentally let slip that England was not a democracy, much to the surprise of the Archbishop who interjected immediately.
"Ultimately we are not going to agree on a monarchy like you guys, we will agree on democracy," he erroneously stated.
"I think the queen would be quite offended," Archbishop Welby swiftly responded.
Upon realising his error, the DP was quick to apologise, going on to explain that he actually meant to say that unlike in England where the public had no power to change their head of State, Kenyans enjoyed that particular freedom.
"The point I wanted to make but I lost it was that you people don't have the opportunity to change the head of state," he clarified.
"For us, we have the opportunity to change both the head of state and the head of government," he added.
The two then went on to laugh it off, before diving back into the BBI discussion.
Ruto told the Bishop that most of the proposals in the reports didn't actually require a change of law but rather adherence to already existing legislation, adding that some politicians were using the BBI for their own selfish gain.
"Once we create an 'us versus them' scenario then we have dropped the ball. Even if it means accepting some things that I don't necessarily agree with if it helps eliminate the creation of warring sides, then I -as the deputy president, will do it," he stated.
He also made it clear that he was not opposed to changing some laws, the constitution or holding a referendum to accommodate the recommendations of the BBI report.
The current archbishop, who was enthroned at the Canterbury Cathedral on March 21, 2013, is the 105 in a line which goes back more than 1400 years under the British crown.
Watch the clip of Ruto's controversial statement below:
