Uhuru wanted me to ditch Ruto – Aden Duale
Garissa Township MP Aden Duale has opened up on his decision to ditch President Uhuru Kenyatta for Deputy President William Ruto.
Speaking to a local media station on Saturday, June 25, 2022, the former National Assembly Majority leader said the President was uncomfortable with his decision to oppose the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
In one of their discussions, Duale said, the Head of State also took issue with his affiliation with Ruto's 'Tanga Tanga' camp that was critical of the President's attempt to amend the Constitution through BBI.
He said the Jubilee party leader frankly asked him to pick a side.
"The President told me that I have a split loyalty and that I had to decide between him and the Deputy President. And I asked him if the marriage is no longer tenable and he said 'yes,'" Duale said, adding that the strained relationship between Uhuru and Ruto caught him between a rock and a hard place.
"So I said I cannot coalesce around a group that wants to humiliate, demean and despise the character and the stature of the office of the Deputy President. I told him, 'Mr. President, I am ready to go. Let me relinquish myself as the leader of the majority and look for somebody else'."
While defending his choice of Ruto, Duale said the DP is a reliable friend who has stood with him through thick and thin.
"William Ruto, to the best of my knowledge until now, has done good deeds to me in the whole of his political life. There is no single bad deed that William Ruto has done to my family, me, and my constituency," Duale, regarded as one of Ruto's most trusted men, added.
Duale stripped of Majority Leader role
Duale would later be kicked out of the plum position he held in parliament in June 2020 alongside several Ruto allies the President accused of disloyalty.
Duale, who has since found a new home at Ruto's United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party, said he expected the President to pick his successor from one of the minority communities. But he was shocked when Uhuru settled on former Kipipiri MP Amos Kimunya.
"I expected him to appoint a Turkana, another Somali, somebody from the coast...But if you ask me, the President became very tribal...he gave back the seat to one of their own."
