• The clergy has appealed to Ruto to open channels for dialogue with Azimio leader Raila Odinga and avert continued street protests.
• Ruto said allowing anyone to operate outside the law would amount to condoning impunity.
Image: HUSSEIN MOHAMED
The government has affirmed that the Opposition is at liberty to engage with President William Ruto but this must be within the confines of the law.
While addressing the Press in Kisii on Wednesday, State House spokesman Hussein Mohamed said there are laid down structures through which the Opposition can reach out to the head of State over any issue.
"He is the President and on one side there is the Opposition. There are channels through which the Opposition can engage the presidency, there are channels through which the Opposition can engage the Executive through Parliament," he said.
Mohamed was responding to calls by the clergy for the President to open channels for dialogue with Azimio leader Raila Odinga to avert continued street protests which Raila now says will happen twice per week.
The State House spokesman, however, echoed Ruto's sentiments on Monday that any manner of engagement between him and the Opposition or anyone else must follow the right legal channels.
Ruto said allowing anyone to operate outside the law would amount to condoning impunity.
"Nothing outside the law is going to be part of what we do as a nation because allowing ourselves to operate outside the law is actually condoning impunity," he said.
The President spoke on Monday at State House after presiding over the swearing-in of Shadrack Mose as Solicitor General.
"So, whatever is happening is that the President will operate under the Constitution and he expects, just like any other Kenyan expects, every Kenyan to operate under the rule of law," Mohamed clarified.
"Anything other than that, of course, is allowing impunity," he added.
Mohamed spoke at the NCPB depot in Kisii County in a press briefing ahead of Ruto's three-day working tour of Kisii and Nyamira counties, and Kuria East and West Constituencies from Thursday.
Held a press briefing at the NCPB depot, Kisii County, to give an update on the fertilizer subsidy and other key government programmes.
Azimio leader Raila Odinga has over time denied that he has taken his fight against Ruto and the Kenya Kwanza administration to the streets to push for a handshake.
He has maintained in all his pronouncements, all he wants is to liberate Kenyans from what he terms an illegitimate regime that is driving them into poverty.
He also says he is fighting for electoral justice claiming Ruto never won the August polls and wants him out of the State House.
“Ruto’s greatest aspiration is to return Kenya to the old dictatorship where he is the unquestioned tyrant controlling everyone’s life,” Raila said on Tuesday while declaring that demos will now be held on Mondays and Thursdays.