Kalonzo to Ruto: You gave all top jobs to Kalenjins
Wiper leader says the DP ignored other ethnic groups in his 50 per cent share of top government positions, hence can’t claim to be a nationalist
- The Nasa trio of Kalonzo, Raila Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi have in the last few days opened political fire against Ruto.
- Belgut MP Nelson Koech says the 2013 appointments met the constitutional threshold and warns Nasa leaders against retrogressive politics.
Wiper boss Kalonzo Musyoka on Wednesday accused Deputy President William Ruto of hypocrisy over the rotational presidency debate.
Former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has launched a scathing attack on Deputy President William Ruto accusing him of dishing his entire 2013 Cabinet share to his Kalenjin community.
Kalonzo, in what appears to be an all-out war against the DP, said Ruto should stop portraying himself as a nationalist. The Wiper boss said Ruto’s true colours were laid bare on how he distributed his 50 per cent share of government.
The Nasa trio of Kalonzo, Raila Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi have in the last few days opened political fire against Ruto in what is likely to define the 2022 presidential contest.
For the first time, Kalonzo—a soft-spoken politician not known for combative politics—claimed Ruto went as far as pushing out some Cabinet Secretaries from other communities to pave the way for politically correct individuals.
The Wiper boss gave an example of former Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu, who was bundled out of the Cabinet after Jubilee’s reelection in 2017.
“Even Ambassador Mailu would be a minister today. I followed that story very closely with President Uhuru Kenyatta and I was told he [Uhuru] had no problem with Mailu. He would have continued as a minister,” Kalonzo stated.
He said the unceremonious exit of Mailu has left the whole Kamba land without a single Cabinet slot.
“You have a community with not a single minister and you really think you can come and confuse Wakamba with those monies of wheelbarrow economics?” the former Vice President asked.
“Since 1963 when this country had Independence, we used to have at least two Cabinet ministers from that community. This is not tribalism; it is the reality of the situation.”
Mailu is currently the country’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva.
Kalonzo said those are some of the hard questions Ruto will be confronted with when he visits Machakos county to drum up support for his senatorial candidate.
The Wiper boss, who is also the special peace envoy to South Sudan, was reacting to DP’s recent attacks on President Kenyatta’s suggestion to have another community produce the country’s next head of state.
Ruto had demanded that Kenyans be allowed to elect their President on merit and not ethnic considerations.
At the weekend, Ruto, in a rare direct exchange with the President, termed the proposal as backwards.
“We cannot degenerate (to this level) because when I supported Uhuru, it was not because of his tribe but his agenda. I supported him knowing very well that Kibaki was Kikuyu. It was deliberate so that we end this politics of tribe and hatred,” Ruto said on Sunday at a church in Kayole, Nairobi.
Yesterday, Kalonzo took on the DP saying he should stop casting a nationalistic figure when he proved to be the worst when he was in position of influence in 2013.
