DP William Ruto holds meetings in five counties

Deputy President William Ruto held a series of campaign meetings in five counties in the Rift Valley and in western Kenya with a message to residents to turn out in large numbers in next month's General Election and vote for the Jubilee Party.

During the six rallies and a number of stopovers that he made as he traversed Nandi, Kakamega, Vihiga, Baringo and Nakuru wooing voters, the Deputy President told residents to cast their votes overwhelmingly for the President and the party’s other candidates so that the opposition does not have a reason to petition the results in court.

"We need to win in the first round of the poll, we want to finish this business and embark on nation building,” said Mr Ruto.

He addressed rallies at Chesumei, Butali, Hamisi, Kuresoi, Mogotio and Kabazi grounds, where he told Orange Democratic Movement presidential candidate Raila Odinga to stop intimidating the military.

“The opposition should leave the military out of politics and allow them to perform their duty of securing Kenyans without being intimidated,” said Mr Ruto in Kabazi.

The DP, responding to allegations by the opposition chief that the government was planning to use the military to rig the elections, said the purpose of arming the soldiers was to ensure peaceful elections.

BE PATIENT

During an earlier visit in Kuresoi, he asked residents who were displaced after the construction of Itare Dam to be patient, saying the government had allocated Sh4 billion to resettle IDPs across the country.

“We will look for a place to resettle the IDPs (internally displaced people) so those affected should relax and know the government is working on it,” he added.

The DP outlined development projects in Nakuru, citing construction of 350km of road.

Mr Ruto said the Jubilee administration was the only government that had achieved much in a very short period