I still have time to roar like a lion, Uhuru tells critics

President Uhuru Kenyatta has hit back at his critics, saying he still has time to roar like a lion.

Uhuru on Tuesday said his critics are busy hitting out at him thinking that his time is over and he cannot do anything.

He spoke when he commissioned the construction of a leadership police academy and 210 housing units in Ngong.

"Leo sitaki kuongelea siasa sababu lazima hio siasa tutaongea... Unajua wengine wananiangalia wanasema huyu anaenda, atafanya nini? Niwakumbushe hata kama anaenda, bado kuna siku kadhaa ya kuguruma kama simba," he said.

(Today I do not want to politic but yes we must politic. There are some people who look at me and think  I have nothing I can do since my time is up; but I want to remind them that even though my time is almost up, I still have some days to roar like a lion).

Uhuru has faced sharp criticism, especially from his deputy William Ruto after his dramatic suggestion of an end to the Kikuyu-Kalenjin domination of the presidency.

His remarks seemed to have jolted DP William Ruto's succession plan and offered a political lifeline to Nasa principals.

Uhuru gave the clearest hint he will not back Ruto for the presidency and may in fact campaign against him.

Uhuru said Mt Kenya and the Kalenjin communities have produced the country’s four presidents since Independence and should pave the way for other communities. 

“Even me, I can stand here and say there are only two Kenyan communities that have led. Maybe it's time for other tribes to lead. Kenya has many communities,” Uhuru said, getting a standing ovation from sections of the mourners.

An angry Uhuru also declared that he is firmly in charge of the government and that his silence should not be misconstrued as weakness.

“Msione simba amenyeshewa mkadhani ni paka… I am in charge of this government and I am in control of what we are doing.”

Raila, now virtually in government-backed Uhuru's sentiments saying it was time the country’s top seat went to another tribe outside of the Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities.

But Ruto while asking the president, his boss to stop the threats read the riot act saying Uhuru was dragging back the country to what he called the backward politics of tribalism.

In what are clearly the last stages of an acrimonious divorce defining the 2022 presidential contest, Ruto said he was ready to face off with the handshake brigade and urged Uhuru to stop “threats and blackmail".

In a rare public exchange between Uhuru and Ruto, the DP said he has supported Uhuru thrice, knowing that he was a Kikuyu and the son of a former President.

“Many of those who were speaking at the burial of Musalia Mudavadi’s mother are the ones who were telling me you cannot support another Kikuyu and I told them I am not supporting Uhuru Kenyatta because of his tribe, I am supporting him because we have a plan to change Kenya,” Ruto said at the House of Hope Church in Kayole on Sunday.

He said he rallied behind Uhuru with Kibaki still at State House in a deliberate move to end what he termed “the politics of stupidity of grouping people in tribes".

“Don’t drive us the narrative of exclusion, of telling us about tribes and tribal chiefs. My friends, Wajinga wameisha Kenya,” Ruto said.

“Let no one threaten you,” Ruto told his troops, mainly Mt Kenya MPs who had taken turns to hit out at the President.

“You know this country, people are threatening each other. Me and these leaders have been threatened over many things. Some have been taken to court, some removed from parliamentary leadership and some have their accounts frozen.”

He went on, “Don’t waste your time with threats, don’t waste your time with blackmail. Don’t waste your time with everything you are doing. You can do it as much as you want but we must change this country.”

Ruto said the next head of state will be elected on their policies and not based on their ethnicity.