Ruto and Uhuru vow to stay on campaign trail to the end

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto on Saturday said they were unfazed by the International Criminal Court summonses and vowed to return from The Hague energised to hit the campaign trail.

The duo told a political rally at Posta Grounds in Bungoma they were confident that they would come out of the ICC process with a clean bill of health.

“We will go to The Hague and come back ready for the 2012 polls,” Mr Ruto said.

Without directly naming Prime Minister Raila Odinga, he said some leaders were using The Hague to lock them out of the presidential election “since we are a threat to them”.

He accused his party ODM of trying to “finish” him politically citing a letter by the party to the United Nations Security Council urging it not to assent to Kenya’s request for a deferral of the ICC cases.

He said the party wanted him to stay away so that “some people, (read Mr Odinga) can ascend to the power with ease”.

“Kenyans need leaders of action and not that of football rhetoric which cannot solve poverty and other problems bedevilling the country,” he said.

Mr Kenyatta said he accepted defeat after being trounced in the 2002 General Election and wondered why Mr Odinga did not do so in 2007.

“If he is a peace-loving Kenyan, why didn’t he concede defeat and move forward as a true statesman?” Mr Kenyatta asked.

He said after he had come up together to unite Kenyans after the post-election violence, he was branded tribalist.

“Immediately we embarked on uniting Kenyans he started saying we are KKK (Kikuyu, Kalenjin and Kamba) and today we are in Bungoma trying to unite Kenyans. Is this tribalism? We will stay united until 2012 and no one can come between us.”

Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa was among the leaders at the rally. He is understood to have abandoned his Ford Kenya party in principle.

Mr Wamalwa said his eyes were still set on State House though he did not announce the party whose ticket he would seek, even after prodding from Housing minister Soita Shitanda and Prof Julia Ojiambo of the Labour Party of Kenya. Both parties have been wooing him.

Other leaders who were in the rally were MPs Ferdinand Waititu, Kazungu Kambi, Elijah Lagat, Wilfred Ombui, Joshua Kutuny, Musikari Kombo, Kazungu Kambi, Joseph Gitari, former Cabinet minister Mukhisa Kituyi, former MP Raphael Wanjala and Nairobi politician Stanley Livondo.

The rally was packed with people, most of whom had camped there since 7 a.m. enduring morning showers.

Security was stepped up at the venue after word went round that the meeting might be disrupted.