William Ruto: Jubilee will honour pledges made to Kenyans

Deputy President William Ruto during the interview at his home in Eldoret town on December 24, 2014. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The Deputy President, a Kanu stalwart in President Moi’s days, at one time serving as organising secretary at Youth for Kanu ‘92 lobby group in the former President’s election machinery, also said he has tremendous respect for the retired president who mentored him in politics.
  • Without giving away too much on his own future leadership ambitions or those of his party, Mr Ruto, however, disclosed that his URP party would be more visible towards the end of 2015 when it would unveil its strategy for the 2017 General Election.
  • Besides the push for better maize prices from farmers in his North Rift backyard, the DP had to move fast to quell unrest in his URP party occasioned by differences on whether or not to support the Council of Governors’ Pesa Mashinani referendum push, with dissenting party voices led by Nandi governor Dr Cleophas Lagat.

Deputy President William Ruto has struck a reconciliatory tone in his New Year’s message to Kenyans, calling for unity “now that the momentum has been set for the transformation of the country.”

In a candid interview with the Sunday Nation that addressed a wide range of issues, Mr Ruto also said he had no personal differences with Cord leader Mr Raila Odinga and that he also has enormous respect for retired President Daniel arap Moi.

The DP further said he expects his case at the International Criminal Court at The Hague to collapse, and that he was losing no sleep over it because he knows he is innocent.

Mr Ruto also praised President Uhuru Kenyatta for the leadership he has provided, describing him invariably as a “self-made man” and a man “made of good metal.”

“My New Year’s message to Kenyans is that there is a world of a difference we can make by working together,” Mr Ruto said at his Eldoret home.

“As a government and as leaders, we are alive to the fact and reality that by causing Kenyans to work together, we can attain so much that we cannot attain if we work at cross-purposes,” he said.

Mr Ruto also moved to assure that the new security laws were for the good of the country and warned that immigration officers risk going to jail if known terrorists are found to have accessed the country through border points which such officers are in charge of.

“The momentum has now been set for the transformation of our country,” he said. “The momentum to actualise what is in our manifesto and what is in the national blueprint, and that is Vision 2030, which is to make Kenya a middle income economy in a shorter time than by 2030.”

JUBILEE SUCCESSES

Mr Ruto enumerated the Jubilee government’s successes in their term of office so far that include “transformation of the education sector, reduction of the cost of doing business in Kenya, reducing electricity tariffs and expanding access to affordable and reliable electricity and expanding of the road network.”

He cited the regeneration of slums, recruitment of more youths into the National Youth Service and increased food production along with the commissioning of the standard gauge railway are some of the other success stories.

“That whole array of things makes me very optimistic about next year. Next year is the year that we will now engage the next gear and take the country to the next level,” said Mr Ruto.

He laughed off claims of turf wars between himself and Baringo Senator Gideon Moi over Kalenjin supremacy saying there was nothing common to fight with Mr Moi for.

“Politics is a competitive game and everyone must work their way and see how they can be relevant, which is perfectly OK,” said Mr Ruto.

“I don’t see that as a turf war. In any case, there is no seat that Gideon and myself are competing for – I’m Deputy President of Kenya and he is Senator of Baringo.”

KANU STALWART

The Deputy President, a Kanu stalwart in President Moi’s days, at one time serving as organising secretary at Youth for Kanu ‘92 lobby group in the former President’s election machinery, also said he has tremendous respect for the retired president who mentored him in politics.

“Mzee Moi is our father in many ways,” Mr Ruto said. “We came through his mentorship, we worked for him, and with him, and in his old age we have only one thing for him, and that is respect.”

“We can only wish him well in his old age because he made a huge contribution to what is today Kenya.”

Mr Ruto was also a close ally of Cord leader Mr Odinga in the run-up to the 2007 General Election before the two broke ranks with Mr Ruto teaming up with President Kenyatta to take over government last year.

But the Deputy President maintains that there are no personal differences between himself and Mr Odinga.

“I have no personal differences with the man many call Agwambo. We just hold different political views and we are in different parties, pursuing different political paths,” said Mr Ruto.

“We have a shared destiny as Kenyans and as leaders we have one country called Kenya which we must protect and work for, irrespective of where we are working from, either in government or in the opposition.”

The former Eldoret North Member of Parliament, who appeared quite relaxed, said he has lost no sleep over his current case at the ICC, stressing his innocence.

“There is a Somali saying that even a person with a hump (hunchback) somehow gets some sound sleep,” he said. “So I’ve had to find a way to get sleep even with the ICC story.”

“The confidence I have with the case makes me continue to do what I must do with the passion I should, because I know I’m Innocent.”

Mr Ruto said he is sure the case will crumble just like those of his four co-accused.

“Progressively, every reasonable mind would only come to one conclusion. That this case is false.

“The fact that progressively, a case that started with six (accused) then they became three and now it is two means that soon it will be zero, because it was premised on the same narrative which was completely false. We never committed the kind of sins we were alleged to have committed and we are confident that this case will come to an end.”

MADE OF GOOD METAL

He heaped praise on President Kenyatta, whose case at the ICC was dropped last month, describing him as having been “made of good metal.”

“Uhuru Kenyatta is a wonderful Kenyan. He’s a very down-to-earth Kenyan, intelligent and hard-working,” he said of his boss.

“Many people look at Uhuru Kenyatta as the son of Jomo. But Uhuru Kenyatta is more than the son of Jomo. He is his own man and he’s made of good metal.”

“He has acquitted himself that he’s not just the son of Jomo, and he didn’t become President because he’s the son of Jomo. He became President because he’s his own man and he worked his way to get to where he is.”

Without giving away too much on his own future leadership ambitions or those of his party, Mr Ruto, however, disclosed that his URP party would be more visible towards the end of 2015 when it would unveil its strategy for the 2017 General Election.

“We have a plan for the parties in Jubilee,” he said. “We wanted to lay a firm foundation in the first two years for government to work, and to get the whole government machinery working seamlessly and achieving the proposals we have in our manifesto.

“From next year, we will then be able to think of how to reassemble the political machinery for 2017 and that is the assignment we have for some time in the end of next year and the beginning of 2016.”

The URP leader said the re-election of the Jubilee government very much depends on how they deliver on the pledges made in their manifesto.

“The manifesto we put together as Jubilee will give us re-election in 2017, it’s the execution and implementation.

JUBILEE MANIFESTO

“The success of the Jubilee government has a lot to do with the perception of Jubilee and the parties associated with Jubilee in 2017.”

On agriculture, the Deputy President also moved to assure farmers that the government was working on subsidising their input, explaining that the recently announced maize purchase price of Sh2,800 per 90-kilogramme bag was dictated by market forces in the East African Community common market.

“Farmers misunderstood, or it was deliberately misrepresented either by default or by design,” said the Deputy President who served as Agriculture minister from 2008 to 2010. “The price we are paying now of Sh2,800 is way above the regional price which ranges around Sh1,800.

“We have regional parties in the East African Community that we have to make sure we are at par with and the average price in the EAC is between Sh2,200 and Sh1,800. For the additional price we paid to farmers, we had to provide a subsidy.”

Besides the push for better maize prices from farmers in his North Rift backyard, the DP had to move fast to quell unrest in his URP party occasioned by differences on whether or not to support the Council of Governors’ Pesa Mashinani referendum push, with dissenting party voices led by Nandi governor Dr Cleophas Lagat.

After consultations with Mr Ruto, Dr Lagat jumped the Pesa Mashinani ship and joined the anti-referendum push.

In reference to Dr Lagat’s about-turn, the Deputy President said it was imperative that leaders are able to sort out their differences amicably.

“As leaders, it is our responsibility to make sure that we get things right whenever we have challenges and are able to sort out problems.