Former Bomet Governor Isaac Rutto has described as a 'slip of the tongue', recent utterances by a section of legislators from the Kalenjin community, adding they should be forgiven.
Rutto said the remarks by Emurua Dikirr MP Johanna Ng'eno and his Kapseret counterpart Oscar Sudi against the family of President Uhuru Kenyatta should not be misconstrued to be the position of the community.
He pointed out that their statements did not depict the kind of character of leadership that Kenyans should emulate saying, "We were shocked and surprised and we never expected that to come from them since they have never come into close contact with the Kenyatta family."
The former governor who was addressing the press at his Tumoi home in Chepalungu on Wednesday said their statements were not only aimed at painting the community as disrespectful but also intolerant.
"As leaders from the community we want to sincerely apologise to the nation at large, family of Kenyatta and anyone oto whom utterances were directed at or may have offended," he stated.
Rutto also asked Deputy President William Ruto to reign in 'errant' MPs whom he said have continued to give the community a bad name.
He said it was sad that despite the frequent warnings to desist from hate speech, the same leaders have continued to willfully engage in it.
He said differing in politics was healthy as it was a democratic principle but, "abusing one another is not one of the issues in a democratic discourse".
He noted, "As leaders, we differ politically. Even I sometimes differ on some issues with some leaders but I have never abused or insulted anyone...that is a thing of the past which should not happen now as it will take us to the dark ages when communities used to fight."
He added, "We are now a civilised nation with proper governance structures. We have a President now, we will do an election in 2022 and whoever Kenyans elect we expect peace to continue."
Rutto further asked Kanu to forgive Ng'eno, saying as leaders from the community, they will talk to "young leaders" and tell them to desist from making further injurious statements.