DP Ruto Blasts Daily Nation in Defence of Handshake

Deputy President William Ruto on Friday, September 20, slammed the Daily Nation due to their headline, which he felt was misleading.

The publication ran a story in which they claimed that President Uhuru Kenyatta's recent endorsement of McDonald Mariga as Jubilee Party's candidate in the upcoming Kibra by-election was a threat to the handshake deal with ODM party leader, Raila Odinga.

In a reaction posted on his Twitter handle, the Jubilee Party deputy leader compared the newspaper's headline 'Why battle for Kibra threatens handshake' to a lazy hyena awaiting the fall of a human hand to gobble up - read to mean the publication's intentionally preyed on the apparent disunity in the party to make news.

The Daily Nation September 20, 2019. DP William Ruto disagreed with the message shared on their headline

DP Ruto stressed that the publisher's allusions were false and meant to create disunity while going on to staunchly defend the handshake.

"The handshake was never meant to kill parties or replace competitive multi-party democracy," he stated.

According to the article by the Daily Nation, Raila Odinga's camp were disillusioned and felt betrayed by Jubilee's move to field a candidate to replace the late Kibra MP, Ken Okoth.

The country's second in command discredited the allegations, claiming that it was well within their rights to field their own candidate in the spirit of democracy.

"Those ranting about our party leader endorsing our party candidate should give us a break. So it's right for all others to endorse theirs and wrong for Jubilee?" he posed.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition chief Raila Odinga at Harambee House on March 9, 2018. Their handshake has shifted political alliances in the country