Deputy President William Ruto has hit back at ODM party leader Raila Odinga who on Friday attacked him for saying the Rift Valley dams probe is about Sh7 billion not Sh21 billion.
Ruto told Raila that he should keep his pre-election promise of going to sell mandazi in Kibera if he lost the 2017 elections.
He wondered why people were bringing mandazi business into a serious issue.
"I want to remind the 'Lord of Poverty' that you told Kenyans that if you lost elections you are going to cook mandazis in Kibra. Why are you not cooking mandazis? Why are you importing mandazi economics to the
government?" Ruto asked.
He said the war on corruption will not be won "by exaggerating figures and introducing economics that does not make sense".
"The truth is the truth. It doesn’t matter how many times you repeat a lie, it will never become the truth."
In
a thinly veiled attack at
a meeting of pastoralists' leaders in Garissa.,
Ruto
accused him of trying
to criminalise every development initiative in the country.
"They have orchestrated and are driving a narrative that every government initiative is marred with corruption. We will not allow people whose signature is keeping people in the slavery of poverty and fighting development using fake news and false," Ruto said.
"Let me tell the people peddling falsehoods not to target William Ruto or individuals. This is not about a person or personalities, it is about 100,000 people in Aror and Kimwarer who will get clean drinking water,”.
"This is about changing the lives of people who are victims of cattle rustling."
On Thursday, Ruto said the
figures being reported to have been stolen in the dams scandal are misleading.
He said the amount is Sh7 billion and not Sh21 billion. The DP spoke
when the Judiciary released its annual report.
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Ruto told his critics to stop focusing on petty politics of 2022 and focus on the main issues.
DP said Raila had told his friends that he was going to break Jubilee.
"I want to tell him that he will not succeed. There is a shortage of fools in this country. People are very smart, they know his schemes," the DP said.
Senate Leader of Majority Kipchumba Murkomen took a swipe at Raila. He described him as the biggest hypocrite ever seen.
"The same people who are now lecturing us on issues of integrity are the same ones who are marginalising people from pastoral areas," Murkomen said.
"We don’t want to see some people who were in government for so many years and rose to the position of Prime Minister giving us a lecture on which amount of money is equivalent to mandazi and githeri,"
Murkomen said.
Murkomen told leaders from pastoral areas to take their rightful positions.
"I want to tell these characters who pretend to be agents of democracy that we will not watch our colleagues being sacrificed and tortured by a political party that lives under contradiction," he said.
National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale said pastoralists are united and going forward will speak with one voice on matters concerning them.