On Tuesday night, Kenya’s Deputy President and Kenya Kwanza’s Presidential candidate said he would head to the supreme court if he lost the elections.
Ruto made the remarks at the presidential debate, which Azimio flagbearer Raila Odinga, his main competitor, snubbed.
“I will accept the election results, and in case I feel they are unfair, I will head to the Court and accept the outcome of the Court,” he said.
He criticized Odinga for avoiding the debate and accused the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate of “running away from the debate in contempt of the people of Kenya.”
“Our competitors think the deep state and the system will make the decision of the next president, but I want to remind them that on August 9th, the votes of Kenyans shall determine who the next President of Kenya will be,” Ruto said.
In the televised debate across all the mainstream media stations in the country, Ruto said that if elected as President, he would stop the borrowing spree of the current government. He also promised to apply brakes on unbudgeted projects.
Furthermore, the DP said he would reduce the VAT tax on fuel to make it affordable to Kenyans and hopefully bring down the cost of living.
Ruto said unplanned projects are consuming at least Sh 100 billion a year, and the struggling Kenyans are shouldering the burden.
“Uhuru Garden Museums, for example, is an unbudgeted project which took Ksh 15 billion,” Ruto said.
He faulted President Uhuru Kenyatta, with whom he has fallen out, for keeping secret the contracts and agreements signed by his administration.
“Our competitors think the deep state and the system will make the decision of the next president, but I want to remind them that on August 9th, the votes of Kenyans shall determine who the next President of Kenya will be,” Ruto said.
The DP singled out the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and other loans signed by the government as agreements that Kenyans ought to know of their details.
When asked by the panelists about his role as the deputy president, Ruto sought to exonerate himself from the mess.
“I took firm decisions in the government. I’m not a coward. But I can only advise the President whenever required. The buck stops with the President,” Ruto said.
He also blamed Kenyatta and Odinga for the fluid security state in parts of the Rift Valley, including the Kerio Valley, Baringo, Baragoi, and Elgeyo Marakwet.
He said that he made a personal effort as the deputy president in 2016 to arrest the situation and that it worked for some years.
“I called all the leaders from those areas and talked with them about the security of the area. We provided police reservists, and after that, for about 3 years, the situation was under control,” Ruto said.
“When the Handshake came in, the over 5000 national police reservists were labeled as a militia for Ruto, and they were withdrawn. Then the situation went south,” Ruto argued.
He said the same fate met the infamous Kimwarer and Arror Dams, “whose construction was canceled to punish my supporters.”
Ruto acknowledged perennial insecurity in some parts of the Rift Valley and attributed it to stiff competition for water and grazing land for the communities in those areas.
The DP said that the panacea for the problem is the construction of dams to power irrigation in the farms and roads to open up the area.
He eased the allegations that he was involved in the alleged irregular allocation of funds to the dams and said that the President himself signed the contracts. Besides, he said that the foreign contractors who were awarded the contracts had sued the government of Kenya in London, and the government might be forced to pay sh 12 billion.
“One day, Kenyans will marvel at what happened in the Kimwarrer and Arror dams,” he said.
Ruto also promised to actualize the two-thirds gender rule in the first year of tenure, if he became the President.
“I have assembled competent constitutional lawyers to ensure the gender rule is actualized in the first year of my presidency,” he said.
He also said that his government would respect and uphold the independence of the Judiciary. He said he was the only political leader who pushed for the establishment of the Judiciary Fund.
“We also stopped the Building Bridges Initiative, which was a complete waste of the public resources. The proposed judiciary ombudsman would undermine the independence l of the Judiciary,” he said.
When asked why the current government has been disregarding court orders, Ruto once again faulted Kenyatta. However, he promised to ensure in the first year of his presidency that his government complies with the judgments issued by the courts “so that I lead Kenyans to obey the law.”
On corruption accusations, Ruto said he is unfairly targeted because he has achieved more than the people thought he would have. Furthermore, he said that all the land he had was legally acquired.
He promised to decisively deal with corruption once he became President.
“All the property that I’ve acquired is legitimate because I’ve paid for its value. In addition, I think I’m the most audited Kenyan politician, and I don’t know where and why the integrity questions keep on coming up,” Ruto offere