DP Ruto at Chatham House: Uhuru is a squatter, refugee in the opposition party

The DP, speaking on Monday during his Chatham House address in London, said the opposition has rendered the current administration ‘a mongrel of a government system’, adding that President Uhuru Kenyatta has now become a ‘refugee’ in the opposition.

“Today in Kenya, we have a mongrel of a government system,” Ruto told the audience, “You don’t know whether it is the government that is in opposition or the opposition is the one that is in government.”

“The leader of the opposition is a project of the system and the deep state of the government. Unfortunately, the leader of what is supposed to be the ruling party is actually a squatter or a refugee in the opposition party,” he added.

“We have quite a situation.”

While drumming up his prospects for the country should he clinch the presidency in the August General Election, Ruto said he is championing the institutionalisation of the governance system.

According to Dr. Ruto, the current administration, which he happens to be part of, has been compromised since the March 2018 handshake between President Kenyatta and then-opposition chief Raila Odinga.

“If we had built our engagements around political parties we wouldn’t have ended in the situation we are in today where we have opposition members chairing government committees,” said DP. Ruto.

“We have the leader of the government being the foremost supporter of the leader of the opposition.”

The second-in-power claimed that public officials allied to the Odinga-led Azimio La Umoja have not been facing consequences of their rogue actions due to “compromise of the oversight authority of the opposition”.

“If you were having challenges of having stolen from the public, you only need to profess that you support the handshake and the BBI and you will have no consequences,” he stated.

Ruto further expressed his plans to ensure that key justice institutions in the government such as the Judiciary, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the office of the Inspector General of Police have freedom to exercise their mandate.

“It is our commitment that we must operationalize the judiciary fund and get the judiciary to do independently what they are supposed to do,” Ruto said.

Currently, the DP argued, the institutions are state-controlled through the President’s office and thus lack objectivity in executing their duties.

“Today the IG and DCI run independent offices but they depend on the Office of the President for their finances. They do not have financial independence, there is a common saying: he who pays the piper calls the tune, so if somebody else is paying you, they decide who you go after and who you don’t,” he noted. 

“That is how they decide if you are on a certain side of the political divide, there are no resources to persecute you while if you are on the other side, there are resources to do so.”

The DP added: “We believe the criminal justice system is truly independent by having not just constitutional independence but having financial independence to discharge their responsibility.”