President William Ruto has said he appointed former President Uhuru Kenyatta to continue playing his mediation role in the region because as President, he is now Uhuru's big brother.
He was responding to a question during an interview with Aljazeera.
“That’s interesting when he didn’t support you to be President. Why do you think he should stay in that role?” he was asked.
"I'm the President of Kenya, I'm the big brother now and it's in my place to work with him," Ruto said.
During his inauguration speech on September 13, Ruto announced that Uhuru would continue chairing the region's peace initiatives.
He said the mediation mandate includes resolving the conflict in Ethiopia and the Great Lakes region which Ruto said Uhuru had thus far been commendable at.
"I have committed that the government of Kenya will support those initiatives that will be chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta. I want to thank you Uhuru Kenyatta for agreeing to support us and to help me in those interventions," Ruto said shortly after taking the oath office at Kasarani stadium.
During the Aljazeera interview, the President said that he believes it was the right thing to do Uhuru not supporting his presidential candidature notwithstanding.
"I will not allow negative energy to be build around our country. It was a competition and President Kenyatta had a candidate, his candidate did not win, I beat his candidate. That's a democratic process," he said.
The head of state said that the electioneering period is now behind the country and the major role at hand is to govern.
"And we have a region to look after and I believe President Kenyatta can bring value," Ruto said.
The President is expected to jet back into the country on Sunday after a week-long foreign trip where he attended Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in the UK before attending the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
