NAIROBI, Kenya
Kenya’s Interior Cabinet Secretary,
Fred Matiang'i on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on Deputy President,
William Ruto, telling him to quit government instead of attacking it from
within.Kenya’s Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang'i (L) stressing a point to Deputy President, William Ruto
Ruto is vying for Presidency
in a fiercely contested campaigns with Kenya’s former Prime Minister, Raila
Odinga who is supported by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Matiang'i, without mentioning
Ruto by name, suggested the DP and his supporters were “pretentious and
dishonest.”
“You sit with the very people
in the National Security Council, you eat government-funded food, drive cars
fuelled by that government and live in a house owned by that very government.
But you don't have the courage to leave," he said.
Meanwhile, Ford Kenya leader
Moses Wetang'ula defended Ruto, saying that any attempts to steal the election
will be resisted.
"We know who the 'deep
state' is. The DP is not a madman and it is his constitutional right to remain
in office until his term ends when the next president and DP take over,"
Wetang'ula said.
Ruto has previously claimed
there is a plot to rig the August 9 presidential election.
The DP said he has information
of secret plans to steal his victory, but warned he had put in place watertight
mechanisms to ensure it doesn’t happen.
On Tuesday, Matiang’i
dismissed the claims as unfounded.
The Interior CS led Attorney
General Paul Kihara, ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru and other government
officials in answering questions from the clergy during the ACK's bishops and
senior pastors conference.
He said the idea of 'deep
state' was created in socialist and communist countries, where there are two
levels of government: one that is formal and known by everybody and the other
that has bad intentions.
"I ask the question, in a
country where there is not one political detainee, where a presidential
election has been nullified and a repeat held, how do you claim there are
shadowy people?" Matiang'i asked.
The Interior CS also took
issue with Ruto's threat to challenge the national budget, accusing him of
populism.
He said that having served in
the Cabinet, he knows how the country's budget gets drawn up, and that his
promises cannot be achieved.
Matiang'i has also defended
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s involvement in succession politics, saying it is his
democratic right.
He said the President has not
forced anybody to take any political direction, saying public servants were
free to ignore his personal opinion about his preferred successor.
The Interior CS said there is
no presidential decree directing state officials on how to approach
elections.
Matiang'i also challenged the
church to scrutinise political aspirants' records while in office.
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