Nasa hits back at DP William Ruto over nepotism claim

The National Super Alliance (Nasa) on Friday hit back at Deputy President William Ruto over his claim that its leaders were practising nepotism.

Speaking in Narok on Thursday, Mr Ruto had accused the Nasa team of going back on its inclusivity talk after Wiper Democratic Movement - Kenya nominated its party leader Kalonzo Musyoka's son Kennedy to represent it at the East Africa Legislative Assembly.

In a statement on Friday, Nasa co-principal Moses Wetang’ula accused Mr Ruto of turning a blind eye to "Jubilee’s own cases of nepotism".

“We find it disturbing that while the Opposition nominees the Deputy President took issue with were products of procedures, processes and rules of their sponsoring parties, Mr Ruto has seen nothing wrong with and has never found it necessary to condemn the unilateral appointments by Jubilee that has seen relatives, friends, sons and daughters of top leaders employed in influential positions for no reason other than kinship and friendship,” Mr Wetang’ula said in the statement.

In his attack, Mr Ruto had said that it was wrong for Mr Musyoka and the Nasa presidential candidate Raila Odinga to nominate their relatives to the regional Assembly.

Mr Odinga’s elder brother Oburu Oginga this week withdrew his candidature. “They are shameless. One proposes the brother, another the son, and nothing would have stopped them from recommending their wives,” said Mr Ruto in Kilgoris, Narok.

In a press statement on Friday, his spokesman David Mugonyi dismissed Senator Wetangula’s assertions as “hollow and hypocritical’’ and challenged the Nasa leadership to respond to the issues surrounding the nomination of Mr Musyoka’s son to Eala, “instead of ganging up to collectively defend nepotism, which has no place in public service”.