Forget presidency, Ruto tells ODM

ODM should forget the presidency in the 2017 elections because Jubilee will win with an even bigger margin, Deputy President William Ruto has said.

Speaking in Migori on Sunday, Mr Ruto said the ruling coalition will fulfil all its pledges to ensure it beats former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ODM with more than 3 million votes in 2017.

Mr Ruto, who did not directly mention the ongoing discontent in ODM over its elections, said it was apparent that the Orange party will further disintegrate.

Mr Odinga’s party is set to hold a National Delegates Conference from February 28 to elect new national leaders.

Some politicians who were jostling for the positions have bowed out while others blame Mr Odinga for elbowing them out of the race.

Mr Odinga and his supporters have accused the Jubilee government of trying to infiltrate the party and destroy it from within. Jubilee has, however, denied these claims.

ODM SHOULD FORGET

On Sunday, Mr Ruto said: “ODM should forget the presidency. If I defeated them in 2013 when I was a hustler, they won’t match me in the next elections because I am now in the government.”
He spoke in Kuria East and asked Migori Senator Wilfred Machage to return to Jubilee.

Mr Ruto was responding to comments by Dr Machage that the Jubilee government will be defeated by ODM in 2017 if it fails to honour its pledges, including giving jobs to minority groups.
Dr Machage had told Mr Ruto to make sure that all government jobs were distributed equally to all Kenyan communities.

“We don’t want this idea of taking all opportunities to Central and Rift Valley. You must show fairness in your appointments,” Dr Machage on Sunday said.

At the same time, Mr Ruto said the Jubilee administration will sack all corrupt public servants irrespective of their standing in the government. He said all civil servants, whether working in the national or county governments, were duty-bound to be accountable to taxpayers.

“We are now releasing billions of shillings to the 47 county governments and we are keen to make sure that the money changes the lives of Kenyans,” he said at Nyamtiro trading centre in Kuria East Constituency, Migori County, during a tour.

“We are keenly monitoring the  expenditures of the devolved units  to ensure  the cash is not looted,” he added.

PRUDENT MANAGEMENT

He told governors to “exercise  prudent management of funds allocated to them” and avoid wastage of tax payers  money  on less important issues.

“The Jubilee Government is supporting devolution fully contrary to perceptions being created by our opponents and that’s why we release funds  to them in good time,” argued Mr Ruto.

But the Deputy President warned that  “devolution should never be used to create  a conduit for graft and mismanagement  of public funds”.”  And that is why we have also strengthened  our supervision of expenditures  in the national Government  and nobody will be spared  for looting public coffers,” he  warned.

The DP said “massive corruption and inefficiency  in the public sector posed  a major threat  to the progress of the country”.
Kenyans must  get value for the taxes they pay everyday, argued Mr Ruto.

He told MPs to use their Constituency Development Funds (CDF) kitty  to build schools  because  Governors  were receiving money to build roads, hospitals and to provide  clean water  to the people.

“CDF should now be used to improve our primary and secondary schools  because  development allocation to the county administrations takes  care  of other infrastructural development,” he said.

DEVOLUTION GOING WELL

His host, Governor Okoth Obado said devolution had taken off well despite some of the challenges they were facing.

“We are on the right track and Kenya will be different after the next four years and we need the support  of everybody,” he explained.

Mr Obado said he will continue to work very closely with the Government in a bid  to improve the infrastructure in his county.

Mr Ruto announced that the Government will set up two training institutes in the two Kuria constituencies  of West and East at a cost of Sh150 million each.

He told members of the Kuria Community to stop practising retrogressive cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and cattle rustling.

FGM, he noted, retarded the development of the girl-child education.

Kericho Senator Charles Keter said Governors must spend well all the funds allocated to them before appointing accusing fingers at others.