Deputy President William Ruto has refuted claims that Jubilee party is divided over the ongoing Mau Forest evictions
Ruto on Saturday said the Jubilee administration is united and held together with one focus to delivery services to Kenyans. While warning political leaders to shun sentiments that might jeopardise the progress made with the building bridges initiative, Ruto said he is working with President Uhuru Kenyatta to deliver a super economy for Kenya.
“How we move forward will be out of our commitment to making our country economically stable. That is guided by the Big Four Agenda. We will be judged not by how much politics we play but how much delivery we presided over to serve Kenyans,” he said.
Ruto was speaking at Kiharu in Murang’a county on Saturday.
“Let us amplify the tenets that make us strong, respect for diversity, tolerance, inclusion, reconciliation, harmony and unity, and mute those that set us apart: tribalism, suspicion, exclusion, hatred, discord and division. This will allow consolidation of a prosperous country,” he said.
His sentiments come after a section of Jubilee leaders were seen in the past weeks reading on different scripts over the Mau eviction.
Last week, Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen was seen inciting Mau evictees to stay put even as a section of Jubilee leaders said the move reeks of disobedience to President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Murkomen said he will not sit and watch innocent Kenyans being thrown out of the Mau by a government.
He said he will continue fighting for the plight of the evictees even if it is a delicate balancing act for his House leadership.
“Some people went to report in Nairobi that I should be removed as the Senate majority leader because of our children who haven’t gone to school, our parents who have been hurt and the old who are sleeping outside,” Murkomen said.
He reiterated his claims that NASA leader Raila Odinga is behind the evictions.
This, however, was not taken lightly by other leaders who hit back at Murkomen for disrespecting the President by inciting Mau local against government’s decision.
Nairobi senator Johnson Sakaja in his response told Murkomen to stop rubbishing President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directives.
In a statement, he said Uhuru is the Jubilee leader and any aggrieved member should use internal party mechanisms to address issues.
Sakaja’s sentiments were echoed by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party which said the ongoing Mau Forest eviction will go on.
The party dismissed Kipchumba’s sentiments saying he was expressing his personal opinion.
Speaking at Jubilee headquarters, secretary general Raphael Tuju urged aggrieved individuals to channel their grievances to the relevant authorities.
He said the eviction is coordinated by a multi-sectoral agency that includes Kenya Forest Services, Kenya Water Tower Authority and the Office of the President.
A day later after a bitter exchange and threats to remove Murkomen as the Senate majority leader and Rift Valley MPs held a crisis meeting at a Nairobi hotel and resolved to cool down the temperatures.
Murkomen later announced the MPs in the meeting had resolved to support president Uhuru Kenyatta’s agenda.