ODM leader Raila Odinga’s allies have declared they will not allow Deputy President William Ruto to hurl insults at the President in fresh confrontation between the two sides.
The Azimio leaders led by governors Hassan Joho (Mombasa), Lee Kinyanjui (Nakuru) and Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni said they will no longer sit back and watch the leaders in the Ruto camp disrespect the President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Joho said they will be forced to take the DP head-on if he will not cease his incessant attacks on the President.
Kioni said the DP’s reference to Uhuru as "tapeli" is in bad taste and confirms he has lost respect for the head of state.
“He has called the President tapeli, it means conman. You looked for leadership together and now you turn to call him a conman, even common decency is not there,” he said.
The Ndaragwa MP said it is unfortunate that the DP has recruited young leaders from Mt Kenya into disrespecting Uhuru.
Nominated MP Maina Kamanda put on notice Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua and his Kiharu counterpart Ndindi Nyoro he claimed are being misused by the DP.
“We cannot have a leader like Ruto and Rigathi who wake up and the only thing is to insult our President,” Kamanda said.
Minority Whip Junet Mohamed said it is a shame that a deputy president can insult his boss and expect to take over the country’s leadership.
“If he (Ruto) can insult the President when Uhuru is in power and he is still the DP, what can he do to Uhuru when he finally takes power?” the Suna East lawmaker posed.
In his address during an Azimio la Umoja rally in Ol Kalou in Nyandarua, Raila vowed to resettle the victims of the 2007/08 post election violence back to their land if elected President in August elections.
The former Prime Minister said his administration will ensure all the Internally Displaced Persons get back the land they lost at the height of the poll violence that followed the December 27, 2017 presidential election.
Raila said it is a shame that Kenyans still continue to be IDPs in their country after being uprooted from places they used to call home.
“IDPs will be taken to areas where they used to live. There is nobody who is here at the invitation of the other,” Raila said.
“You are a Kenyan and our people have a right to stay anywhere in Kenya without discrimination.”
According to government records, some 1,000 lives were lost and about 600,000 Kenyans were displaced following what could be described as the worst political crisis in Kenyan post-colonial history.
“Recently, some people were taking of madoadoa, here in Nyandarua you have IDPs who lost their properties. We don’t want to see such things in our country,” Raila said.
Joho said the madoadoa remark was distasteful and one that is likely to cause tension and disrupt the fragile unity of the country.
Nyandarua is among the counties with unsettled IDPs, 15 years since the post polls chaos.
The Azimio boss also rallied residents to back his unity movement saying it is the only way to have a country where all Kenyans have a voice.
Raila was accompanied by Kimemia, Kinyanjui, Joho, MPs Kioni, Kamanda, Amos Kimunya (Kipipiri), Sabina Chege (Murang'a), Kanini Kega (Kieni) and Babu Owino (Embakasi East).
-Edited by SKanyara