Deputy President William Ruto on Monday replied to a recording that was released and captured him confessing to almost hitting President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2017 after their election was nullified.
Speaking at a rally in Imenti, Meru county, the DP bemoaned the fact that his contenders had turned to secretly recording him, but he justified the information included in the audio, asserting that he had every right to press Uhuru to retain power.
He said because there was so much on the line for both him and the President at the moment, it would have been unreasonable for the head of state to decide to step down on his own account simply because the Supreme Court had ruled the presidential election to be illegitimate.
“They are now secretly recording people and sharing it all over that Ruto pushed the President. Did you want us to allow him to leave the seat which we woke up at 5 am? Even If I forced him, is there any problem? Was it not because he is my friend. Allow me to ask, when Maraga nullified the elections and ordered that we should go for a repeat, did you want him to drop his bid. Would you have allowed him to leave us in the dark after all we did to ensure he wins the seat?” he lamented.
He continued by saying he had invested too much into the political campaigns for the pair’s second term in government and would not want Raila Odinga, the then-candidate for NASA, to reap the benefits of his own lack of labor.
“I did the majority of the campaigning, I would hold three meetings before the president joined me. There was no way I would allow Raila to take the seat from him – even if it meant pushing Uhuru to whatever limits, I would.”
