Deputy President William Ruto’s call for support by two NASA principals should not be seen as part of 2022 campaigns, Senator Kipchumba Murkomen has said in his defense.
Murkomen, who is in charge of Elgeyo Marakwet and Majority Leader, said the DP merely reached out to his "friends" Musalia Mudavadi (ANC) and Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang'ula (Ford Kenya).
“The DP is on record saying that no region in Kenya owes him a political debt, except of course his two friends [Mudavadi and Wetangula],” he said in Iten on Sunday, adding the DP's remarks were "reasonable".
“He asked his friends to offer him some support. That’s different from campaigning. He said he hopes his friends will support him because they have supported each other in the past."
In Kakamega on Saturday, the DP asked Mudavadi to support his 2022 presidential bid.
The Amani leader has, however, already declared that he will be on the ballot in 2022 since he equally sacrificed his ambition and supported President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2002 and Raila Odinga in 2007 and 2017.
On Sunday, Raila's brother Oburu Oginga
said Ruto should be surcharged for using his position and office for politics, instead of initiating development projects.
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Murkomen further noted that the people of Western Kenya don’t owe Ruto a political debt, as some people who are "changing the story" have said.
The Senator also told NASA leaders led by ODM's Raila to support the President and stop dragging him into the vote rigging allegations of the 2017 elections.
Raila said at the weekend that he did not become President because his votes were stolen, by people he likened to crocodiles.
Murkomen said:
“We want the President to be respected and not referred to as a crocodile by NASA stalwarts. We have shown NASA leaders respect
and want them to reciprocate."
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The Majority Leader
urged elected leaders to fulfill their campaign pledges using the favourable political environment that resulted from the March 9 unity pact between Uhuru and Raila.
He criticised politicians clamoring for the amendment of the Constitution, saying this idea is misplaced.
“Constitutional amendments are not a subject under discussion anywhere in Kenya. It can be amended, but only sometime in the future,” he said.