DEPUTY President William Ruto yesterday insisted he acquired the controversial Weston Hotel legally and told off Cord leader Raila Odinga, who on Monday said it should be demolished.
Ruto turned to his Twitter page, saying Raila has no reason to call for the hotel’s demolition.
According to Ruto, the former PM had not learned of the hotel only recently and should therefore not be making that kind of suggestion.
“Tinga must have forgotten that he already had sent his man Jacob Juma of Erad scandal fame to court over the Weston Hotel when he was Prime Minister," Ruto said.
He added that the hotel has existed for years and was put up when Raila was the MP for Lang’ata and Prime Minister in the Grand Coalition government.
“For the record, the Weston was not in the Ndung'u Report, nor the many [then Lands Minister James] Orengo cancelled. It was built in Lang’ata over 10 years, when Tinga was area MP and PM," Ruto said.
He was referring to the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Illegal/Irregular Allocation of Public Land of 2004. The commission was chaired by Paul Ndung’u.
On Monday, Raila challenged President Uhuru Kenyatta to show his seriousness in fighting corruption by first repossessing the land on which Ruto's Weston Hotel stands and demolishing it, since it was built on public land.
Raila also urged the President to immediately suspend Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru to facilitate investigations into the NYS.
“The war on corruption has become the art of keeping the faith of the people with high-sounding deceitful promises by the very people accused of stealing while they continue raping the nation. We maintain that corruption now swirls around the President and his Deputy, personally. Kenyans are beginning to wonder whether President Uhuru Kenyatta is an innocent pawn or the master and a star player in this game of stealing from Kenyans out of every project undertaken by Jubilee and using the proceeds to buy political support,” said Raila in a statement.
Speaking in Narok on Monday, Ruto said that the Raila-led opposition was only out to tarnish his name as a way of gaining political mileage ahead of the 2017 elections.
The DP also told Raila that the Cord leader was not the only person who was allowed to be rich in Kenya, describing himself as “a hustler.”
“There is nothing wrong with borrowing money from the bank and putting up an investment. If you don’t have money, approach a bank for a loan,” said Ruto.
He said the greatest problem with the opposition leaders is "how a person like me, who comes from a poor background, can own a hotel."
He went on: “When God decides to bless you, He does it in a mighty way. He has blessed me to be what I am today, because I used to sell chickens in Railway Kimagut or Eldoret before plunging to politics,” he said.
He gave the example of a former Defence minister, the late Njenga Karume, saying he used to be a charcoal dealer in Molo but God changed his life and his estate now owns the Jacaranda Hotel in Nairobi.
“The problem with these people is that they believe in witchcraft and forget that God can change your life completely, regardless of your status,” said Ruto, adding, “They should know that hustlers and sufferers have a chance to change their lives in modern Kenya, they should change the perception that only the son of the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga can be rich alone in this country.”