Deputy President William Ruto has vowed not to repeat the same strategy which he used to manage the controversial and chaotic Jubilee Party nominations in 2017
In an exclusive interview with Citizen TV on Tuesday, December 28, the DP noted that the chaos witnessed in the Jubilee nominations stemmed from the initial decision to exclude President Uhuru Kenyatta and himself from participating in the exercise.
The DP claimed that after his intervention, the process was salvaged - vowing to have more control in the management of the UDA nominations ahead of the 2022 General Election.
"Nominations was what the people had decided. It was not the decision of the party leader or anyone else. I went and took charge of the Jubilee Nominations once there was a problem because we erred by delegating. The President and I asked the Party to do the nominations.
"That will never happen again because the delegation for nominations was done against my advice. I had said that the only sure way was for us to be in charge ourselves and when we agreed with the President and I went and sat at the party headquarters, the nominations went very well and everybody got elected," stated the DP.
Ruto further argued that individuals who left Jubilee Party after losing the party's ticket did not succeed in their pursuit of elected office.
Some of those who lost in the nominations, including former Kiambu Governor and Mukurweini MP Kabando was Kabando, have in the past accused the DP of intentionally rigging them out - a claim the country's second in command dismissed.
He further vowed to ensure that the mistake does not re-occur since he will personally take part in the exercise.
"Most of the people who claimed that Jubilee Party Nominations were not done properly ran as independents. Did they succeed? Nobody succeeded because it showed you that what was decided in Jubilee
"I have told the UDA fraternity that on the matter of nominations, I will take personal responsibility because I have the experience, knowledge and understanding. I have run these nominations for the last 25 years and I have sufficient experience to make sure that the nominations will be free and fair," he stated.
During the wide-ranging interview, the DP also refuted claims of the existence of a 'deep state' or 'the system' within government.
He noted that if that were the case, his party, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), would not have emerged victorious during the Kiambaa by-election.
"As the DP, if there was a deep state and a system, I would be aware. If it really existed, would they have allowed UDA to win elections in Kiambaa?" he questioned.
In April 2017, Uhuru was forced to apologise after chaos broke out during the party's primaries explaining that they had not anticipated the huge turnout.
The chaos at the time included missing names, insufficient ballot papers as well as long delays.
