Deputy President William Ruto has maintained that no coin allocated to Arror, Kimwarer dams has vanished.
While speaking in Nyeri on Saturday, Ruto maintained his denial that Sh21 billion allocated to Arror, Kimwarer dams lost .
Insisting the current figures being reported as money stolen are misleading, the DP is only about Sh7 billion that is yet to be accounted for.
Ruto insisted no money will be lost since theirs is a government which is responsible, adding that they have engaged every arm of government.
“The correct information must be used as we target the fight against corruption so that we can nail the real culprit,” he said.
Ruto said the Jubilee government is committed to ensuring that the Karemero dam, Thwake, Itere, Kimwarer, Arror and Naro Moru dams are completed as planned.
He said there has been progress though the issue of land compensation is what has stalled the projects.
I am talking as the Deputy president of the Republic of Kenya. I am not mad and I don’t smoke bhang we shall ensure that all these dams are built,” he said.
Ruto added, ” Tusidanganyane hapa eti pesa imeibiwa kumbe ni ukora inawekwa huko ndani ndio legacy ya Uhuru ipotee, performance record ya Jubilee ipotee ndio watu wengine watumie kesho kutuhujumu kisissa kwani mnaona sissi ni wajinga?”.
(Let us not lie to one another that money has been stolen when there is a lot of lies to tarnish Uhuru’s legacy and Jubilee’s performance record so that some people will use that as a weapon to humiliate as politically. You think we are fools?).
He said some politicians instead of seeking court redress have resolved to use propaganda in the media to scare investors so that at the end Jubilee is perceived as most corrupt.
“We have the DCI, EACC, ODPP and the Judiciary which are mandated to fight this war. We have fully equipped them and so some people just want short cuts to propel propaganda in the media,” he said.
Earlier on Ruto had said the wrong information around the dams was making the government lose credibility before its citizens on the fight on graft.
“You’ have heard that the government has lost about Sh21 billion which is a flat lie! The money in question is about Sh7 billion, and for every coin that has been paid, we have a bank guarantee,” he said.
He added, “Sometimes we say Sh9 billion has been lost and we go to court, then we are told its Sh100 million. Sometimes we shoot ourselves in the foot.”
The Sh63 billion dams scandal has triggered panic in Deputy President William Ruto’s camp as the arrests of high-profile government officials, including Cabinet secretaries, loom.
On Monday the Directorate of Criminal Investigations summoned 107 companies’ directors to be questioned over implementation of the Sh63 billion Arror and Kimwarer multi-purpose dams projects.
Since then Ruto has been meeting allies on how to respond to DCI investigations.
According to multiple sources, Ruto and his allies agreed to have senators, MPs and governors from the region, and their bloggers launch an aggressive campaign dismissing claims Sh63 billion could have been lost.