Jubilee Party Secretary General Raphael Tuju on Monday, September 6, issued a full statement against Deputy President William Ruto in what seemed to be an all-out war waged against the country's second in command.
The strong-worded statement left no doubt on the increasingly tense relations between Ruto and his boss - President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Here is the full statement:
In the last few days, Kenyans received surprising revelations in Parliament on the security support to Deputy President William Ruto, amounting to some 257 taxpayer paid security officers. Our Deputy President is easily having the biggest number of security detail in the whole world. At least in the democratic world. No previous 2nd in command in Kenya comes even close. His demands for security were met.
From when Deputy President took office in 2013, and he demanded proposing half the cabinet, the rain started beating us. His proposals were too biased ethnically and it left the President with no options but to work with the remaining half to accommodate the rest of Kenya.
These unfortunate demands of the Deputy President would extend to other senior political appointments in government for the whole of 2013 to 2017 circle.
The DP exhibited an amazing level of shortsightedness by failing to appreciate the fact that even those Kenyans belonging to other ethnic communities that did not vote for the Uhuru Kenyatta government, were at the end of the day still Kenyans who had a right to services and an opportunity to work and do business with the government. That is an element ‘to serve all Kenyans without fear or favour’ oath that both the President and the Deputy President take upon assumption of office.
It is an open political secret that in the first term of this Presidency, Deputy President Ruto possessed some “political blackmail stock options” that he used to his great personal advantage.
Kenyans have heard ad nauseum about these political blackmail stock options. “Oh, we have the numbers in parliament” complete with pictures profiling these numbers at his Karen residence where bodyguards and drivers are sometimes added. During the 2013 to 2017 cycle this blackmail was subtle and in private.
It is not about numbers. This is political speak to say I can pull out the support of my tribe if I do not get this for MYSELF. It would probably be excusable if it is about support for the tribe but it is now becoming clear for all Kenyans to see that it is about SELF. UBINAFSI na ULAFI wa hali ya juu.
Unfortunately for that so-called UDA, political blackmail stock options have battery life and shelf life.
Through it all, President Uhuru Kenyatta has remained focused on the big picture for the good of Kenya; implementing the big four agenda and securing peace and stability through inclusion, because without peace, no development and prosperity can be maintained.
We believe that our President has been very tolerant, and has accommodated his past behaviour and demands as a Statesman whose mission is to make Kenya viable by uniting the country. The President continues to focus on the big picture and we congratulate him for that.
The blackmail stock options expiry date was immediately after the 2017 elections. The battery died after the handshake because the numbers game and withdrawal of tribal numbers lost political potency.
That is the truth that all Kenyans should know. Not only can the DP no longer blackmail Kenyans, but the people of Kenya also will NOT accept to be blackmailed.
In this latest saga on his security detail, we would like to congratulate our Deputy Party leader William Ruto for his honesty to admit that he is himself a very rich hustler. Mgala muue lakini haki yake mpe, as the Swahilis would say. It was an admirable display of optics and demeanour of humility before his real self and ego came back as he launched a scathing social media attack executed by his foul-mouthed political mouthpieces and bloggers with most of the vitriol directed at the person and family of the founding father of our nation Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who is not here to defend himself.
As a Party, we are sending the DP a public message that we will not countenance his venturing into crossing this line. He must call all his goons to order. We continue to resist a lot of provocation luring us to get into the slimy and smelly social media pig stay that some of these people occupy. But we have the truth on our side and Kenyans will be made to know the truth.
By his own account, the Deputy President is on Video record when he told Kenyans that he was worth 100 million Kenya shillings in the year 2015. In the intervening seven years. He has “worked very hard” in his businesses and now therefore he has assets like choppers, hotels and land worth Billions of shillings.
We would like to congratulate His Excellency Dr. William Ruto for being able to make such amazing strides in business even as he was studying for his PhD concurrently with running a multibillion shilling empire and carrying the heavy burden of working as number two in command, being involved in presidential campaigns and on his Sundays still sparing time to do many harambees from his hard earned sweat money.
From our records. He has been more generous than Kenya's leading telco and other blue chip firms... Maybe he expects us to lie prostrate in awe at great deputy leader in admiration for such prowess, the chosen one!!
But as our leader, we would like to make the following requests that we consider to legitimately stem from the proceedings in the past few days.
While the exact acreage of what he is said to own may still be debatable, he has accepted the ownership of at least 3600 acres. Most of our hustler nation citizens are only hoping or dreaming to own 0.2 acres. We do not expect him to give his personal land. But given his good heart and in the spirit of the Chinese saying that do not give a fish but show somebody how to fish, he can greatly help.
May it please His Excellency the DP, Dr William Ruto, EGH, UPL, DL, CH to show these our young people all the skills on how to acquire such property in such a short time. He should teach us the clueless adults. We may not possess his supernatural powers of hard work. But teach us apart from the wheelbarrows. Show us another way to perform such miracles.
We would like to thank the DP and congratulate him for telling us about his chicken farm that makes for him some 1.5 million every day. We thank him because his generosity that add up to millions at different churches and transport money paid to his many visitors at his Karen residence was not adding up. People of goodwill may have even considered chipping in. But with an income of 1.5 million a day our DP is ok.
The only thing left in his wonderful act of transparency is for him to show us the figures with respect to his very big payment to Kenya Revenue Authority. A great leader should lead from the front. We request that as person who is also a good bible quoting born-again Christian he will shame the devil and publicly give all Kenyans this information. Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what belongs to Him. ~ Mark 12:17
In the small matter of Arror and Kimwarer saga the DP told Kenyans that ONLY Ksh7 billion had disappeared. This situation obtained when he had gone to Rome Italy on private business. His own daughter was the deputy ambassador in Rome at that time. To our knowledge, this money has never been returned by the Italians.
Since he has got some private businesses networks in Italy that he had gone to meet, would he be so kind to this nation of poor people as to use his vast business networks to recover this money. It is a lot of money even though he referred to the figure of Ksh7 billion as “ONLY’’. Even with the DPs chicken firm income of Ksh1.5 million net a day, it will take some 13 years before that chicken farm produces7 billion shillings. But that may be beside the point.
We request a truthful response of the DP to these matters raised for the sake of Kenyans. The time is over for cheap media spin-doctoring as we witnessed recently that he will even accept the G4S Security. Now that we know the G4S are his standard, it should be easy to calculate the price per askari who were posted to his private properties during the era of blackmail stock options and have it paid to Kenyan tax payers. May be we can also extend that little refund to Wanjiku.
