Deputy President William Ruto respectfully asked to be pardoned for dressing inappropriately during a function held at the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Ruto was dressed in a checked grey coat, maroon tie, white shirt and a black trouser when the Judiciary released its 2017/18 report.
“It is a pleasure to accompany the President here. When I look around, I am the only one here who is out of place because I am not appropriately dressed,” he said.
“I want to apologise to the Chief Justice. I was dressed to go for another occasion out of town but then the President asked me to come with him.”
He said that his dress code was not out of disrespect for the Judiciary adding that his visit was impromptu. Most of the guests invited wore black suits with white shirts and black ties.
“It is not out of disrespect that I am dressed like this. It has nothing to do with what I said before.. but I want to say that with respect and have the highest regard of our judicial system,” he said.
Ruto said in 1988, he met an old member of the Judiciary, Paul Muite who talked about criticising the government.
“At 31 years, I was robust in defending the government. He called me and told me supporting the government was not bad but noted that you also have to criticise it,” he said.
“So when you hear us criticising the judiciary, it is because we support the Judiciary…sometimes when they do what you don’t agree with and that is when we make certain comments.”
In 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta said they will deal with the Judiciary and “revisit” their case after the Supreme Court nullified his August presidential election victory.
The President asked the Judiciary to practice fairness stating that the independent arm of the government has not been fair.
“I’ve always said we have a problem with our Judiciary. We shall respect the ruling but we will revisit this agenda because we have to respect the will of the people,” he said.