Me? Threaten Mutua? Not on earth, says Ruto
Deputy President William Ruto yesterday laughed off reports that he threatened Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua.
Speaking at Isambo Beach in Budalang’i, Busia county, Ruto sarcastically denied having “squeezed” Mutua’s hand during a handshake.
“You heard that guy ( Mutua) complain that I greeted him and squeezed his hand.
What if he shook hands with the strong man rowing the boat here? He would have rushed to The Hague (International Criminal Court, ICC),” he Ruto.
Mutua last week claimed his life was in danger after the DP reportedly threatened to “crush” him.
After Mutua reported the matter, police said investigations would take long because the governor did not provide witnesses.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said reports that Ruto and two Jubilee politicians threatened him were yet to be corroborated by independent witnesses.
As a result, the investigators said preliminary investigations had not disclosed a clear criminal offence, and that the threats still remained vague and ambiguous.
The DCI headquarters said apart from the allegation that he was threatened, Mutua had not given credible evidence to corroborate what he had said.
Similar threats
The governor reported that he was on December 11 threatened by Ruto and had received similar threats earlier, on November 25, from leaders of government business in the National Assembly and the Senate Aden Duale and Kipchumba Murkomen, respectively.
Mutua had said the DP talked to him in an angry tone and that he told ODM leader Raila Odinga and four other senior government officials who were near him about the threats.
But police say Mutua neither gave the specific names of the people he said were around nor gave names of additional independent witnesses to corroborate his allegations.
The DP spoke a day after his trip to Uganda to lay a foundation stone for construction of an institute at Makerere University to be named after him.
During the visit, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni pledged Sh10 million towards the construction of the proposed William Ruto Institute of African and Leadership Studies.
The Ugandan leader made the commitment on Saturday when he met Ruto at Mubende State Lodge, Kampala.
“This institute will go a long way in deepening Africans’ knowledge base and furthering research that will transform Africa,” said Museveni.
The Deputy President, who arrived in Kampala on Friday, was accompanied by Governor Jackson Mandago (Uasin-Gishu), MPs Kimani Ichung’wa (Kikuyu), Khatib Mwashetani (Lunga Lunga) and Charles Njagagua (Mbeere North).
Ruto said he was immensely humbled by being associated with “this magnificent addition to the storied achievements of Makerere University.”
Transform Africa
“One key paradox of our time is the persistence of dysfunction in some parts of the world amidst the tremendous progress made elsewhere,” he said.
The DP said only an Africa-specific curriculum, and not a copy and paste of other societies, would bring a turnaround in the continent.
“There is nothing exceptional about Africa that explains its exclusion from the broad wave of global progress,” he said.
Elsewhere, Duale declared Ruto’s roadmap to State House come 2022 “unstoppable”.
Speaking in Garissa town yesterday, Duale said those trying to derail Ruto’s quest to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta were wasting their time, resources and energy on an already determined contest.
Duale accused Raila of using the Handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta to lock out the Deputy President in the 2022 race to State House.
“We are ready to support Ruto all the way whether the Building Bridges Initiative comes up with a parliamentary or presidential system,” he said.
“However, as at now, we want to focus on improving the health, education sectors to transform the country under Jubilee and the leadership of party chair Uhuru Kenyatta,” he said.
He supported a pure parliamentary system when the BBI was collecting views from Kenyans saying it would ensure equitable distribution of national resources irrespective of population.
