'Who is rogue between the two?' Ruto fires back at Raila over U.S Ambassador election remarks

President William Ruto has come out to defend United States Ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman after Opposition leader Raila Odinga threatened her over her remarks on the 2022 General Election.

Speaking on Friday during the Official 2Jiajiri/GIZ Graduation Ceremony in Kasarani, President Ruto slammed the Azimio One Kenya Coalition Party Leader over what he termed as 'glorifying demonstrations' and making careless remarks against the U.S envoy.

He reiterated that the U.S. is currently the largest export market for Kenya and that making defamatory comments against the Ambassador was comparable to damaging the country's economy and a symbol of ungratefulness.

"We cannot in this time and age, it will be a tragedy of monumental proportions if, at this time and age, we want to glorify demonstrations that are violent, destroy property and sabotage our economy; we would be very reckless people," he said.

"It would be very ungrateful for us to vilify the people who are creating opportunities for us; we have Ksh.200 billion investment from the American government and huge investments from Germany and other countries. We must secure those interests...we must not be petty or looking at things which are personal."

Odinga, in his address on Thursday during the Devolution Conference, referred to Whitman as 'rogue', for claiming that the 2022 General Election was the most credible in the country's history.

In a rejoinder, the president seconded the envoy maintaining that her sentiments were nothing but the facts.

"In any case, the American Ambassador said two statements of facts; she said the last election was the freest and fairest in the history of Kenya and Kenya is open for business, which are statements of fact. Let us have some decorum and respect ourselves as we demand respect from others," Ruto stated.

The Head of State went ahead to mockingly compare the Azimio team leading protests to the U.S creating investments saying: "I was just imagining...between the people who are orchestrating the destruction of property and sabotaging our economy and those who are working with us to create investments, who between the two is actually rogue?"

According to President Ruto, America boasts of over Ksh.220 billion in investments to Kenya every year which is critical in creating employment and developing the economy.

"America is our largest export market and we are working to make it even better; how we can access our leather products, textile and other products in the American markets because we want to build a market for you when you grow your business, you have a market to export your produce," he noted.

"In the last year, with the American government alone, we have created investments whether it is Moderna, which is going to invest almost Ksh.70 billion, or others in the technology space which are going to give us almost Ksh.200 billion investments."

Odinga on Thursday chewed out Ambassador Whitman intimating that she was meddling in Kenya's affairs, further threatening that if she continues to comment on Kenyan issues, then the opposition political faction may be forced to petition the US government to recall her.

Odinga likewise defended the recent spate of protests averring that they served the purpose of uniting the country and compelling the government to come to the dialogue table.

“I want to tell the rogue ambassador, leave Kenyans alone. If maandamano can lead to dialogue between Ichung’wah and Kalonzo, everything is good with maandamano,” Odinga stated.