'Withdrawal of police reservists in Rift Valley was meant to punish me,' DP Ruto says
Deputy
President William Ruto now claims that the government's move to withdraw
National Police Reservists (NPR) from banditry-prone areas of
the Rift Valley was a ploy to punish him.
Speaking during the
Presidential Debate on Tuesday night, the Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate
said President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government move to withdraw the NPRs back in
2019 in areas prone to bandit attacks such as Elgeyo Marakwet and Kerio Valley
was politically motivated.
“I have deployed my
personal resources to deal with that situation because I know it was a
political agenda; the withdrawal of the National Police Reserve (NPR) was
really an unfortunate act but because it was intended to punish William Ruto,” Ruto
said.
“Never mind that many
people lost their lives, is a real tragedy, but that is the nature of our
politics in Kenya, unfortunately.”
Ruto argues that since he
had been in charge of the operation in Kerio Valley to mobilise resources and
ensure the security was deployed in the area, the government mistook the act to
seem as if he was doing it on a personal basis.
The
UDA boss pointed out that the disarmament of the NPR that occurred later under
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i's directive has been a contributor to
the insecurity in the region.
“We had close to 5,000
police reservists, we had even moved forward to provide armoured vehicles to
make sure we can follow the criminals. We had a plan but it was frustrating,”
he explained.
“I am the one who had taken
charge; I mobilised the resources and was there every two weeks. I mobilised the
identification of the NPR and it looked like it was about me when it was not
about me.”
In
the same light, the DP alleged that the collapse of the multi-billion shillings Arror
and Kimwarer dams project
was also a move to injure him politically since they are located in the region
where he hails from. He said that the government paralysed the operation
to disadvantage his supporters.
Ruto claimed: “The Kimwarer
and Arror Dams were cancelled intentionally to punish my supporters.”
In 2019, the government
called for the withdrawal of National Police Reservists from the
insecurity-prone areas saying that their firearms were being misused to further
crime in the region.
CS Matiang'i, and Inspector of Police Hillary Mutyambai were later put to task by the Senate to shed some light on the disarmament operation.
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