• Corruption caused the abortion and non-implementation of most of the ambitious Jubilee manifesto projects.
• Ruto's actions mean he wants corruption to continue ravaging the country.
Image: DPPS
The whole country must stand up to call Deputy President William Ruto to order looking at how he has lost direction and purpose in leadership.
His current political trajectory fatally undermines his position in the Presidency and subverts the Constitution.
Ever since President Uhuru Kenyatta declared his plans to have his last term focused on the Big Four agenda, launched an intensive war against corruption and anchored the plan with a national reconciliation and unity pact through the famous handshake with Raila Odinga, Ruto launched a political counteroffensive to cripple these very initiatives.
It is not only that the Big Four agenda is President Kenyatta’s last-ditch effort to secure his legacy as claimed in some quarters but also a vital programme to help him deliver some necessary tangible development benchmarks under his regime.
Corruption caused the abortion and non-implementation of most of the ambitious Jubilee manifesto projects and programmes promised to voters in the 2013 and 2017 elections.
Hence, the Big Four agenda is the President’s alternative to the stillborn or frustrated Jubilee development promises.
It is everybody’s guess what and who caused the crude abortion of those programmes and the poorly executed or inflated expenses for the few delivered ones.
In focus here are the multi-billion water dams and irrigation projects such as the Galana Kulalu Irrigation Pilot Project, highly expensive Standard Gauge Railway, the controversial dams (Arror, Kimwarer, Itare, Karemenu, etc), controversies, as well as scandals that involve maize, sugar and fertiliser, the NYS Scandal, the Afya House Scam, roads construction, security services re-tooling and upgrading projects, among others.
Image: DPPS
When the President acknowledges that corruption is “the elephant in the room” and summons the whole country, including the opposition, to fight and destroy the dragon, then inexplicably his deputy recruits and fuels a section of legislators and other opinion leaders into a vicious campaign to undermine and frustrate this most crucial undertaking, obviously he is not just a rebel but an enemy of the country and the people.
His actions mean he wants corruption to continue ravaging the country; that he does not want any development agenda (leave alone the Big Four agenda) to take off to successful delivery; that he does not want his boss to work for a good legacy to retire with; that the national reconciliation and unity agenda crafted through the handshake must fail and that he is rejoicing at the frustrations corruption and negative ethnicity have subjected the country to.
SABOTAGE
Sabotaging the Presidency — which he is part of — openly and blackmailing the state through legislators and ethnicity driven civil Servants borders on treason.
It does not matter whether you played a key role in enabling a regime to win elections.
Once you choose to openly contravene the Constitution and statutes to illegally weaken and dismantle the same you lose your privileged position and become a pariah who deserves appropriate legal and political management and rehabilitation.
Little wonder he has publicly argued, to the shock of many, that corruption cannot stop the government from successfully executing its development agenda. Alas!
Now, these are not attributes and qualities expected of a holder of a senior position in the government of the republic, leave alone the second in command! Does he know that he comes out as a clear cut saboteur from whom the country should be saved?
Surprisingly, he has chosen to operate outside the Constitution, as if he is above the law.
Together with his Tangatanga group, they should be reminded that in politics and national leadership all are expected to play within the rules and observe the boundaries just like in all disciplined sports: No player is allowed to take the ball and purport to play it outside the officially demarcated field.
They should be told in no uncertain terms that they are playing the same type of game Lucifer tried on God in heaven —harping on some delegated functions and prominence to try to upstage the boss and to illegally take control of the established order.
They are trying to upstage the head of state and overthrow the political established order. They know what happened to Satan; he has never recovered.
The panic reactions by a section of Tangatanga legislators after the National Police Service withdrew their bodyguards last week speaks volumes.
It reveals their knowledge of the unconstitutional and divisive politics they are playing and fear repercussions. They know their crusade against the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission and the Director of Public Prosecutions in-depth investigations to nab the masters of corruption is a crime called “Obstruction of Justice” and others more serious under the penal code.
The writer is ODM national treasurer and former Kitutu-Masaba MP