President William Ruto has urged Members of Parliament in the Kenya Kwanza administration to support his government in achieving its mandate.

Speaking during a meeting with the legislators at Windsor Hotel in Nairobi on Monday, December 5, the Head of State called on the leaders to avoid criticising the government.

He said some of the lawmakers, who have taken the government head-on recently over certain decisions, should leave the role to the opposition.

“You have a huge stake in this government succeeding. The success of this government is your success and the success of the people of Kenya.

“Our competitors in the opposition would be doing their bit. You must do yours. Sometimes there is a temptation to join the opposition in doing certain things, please avoid the temptation to join the other side when they are doing their job,” Ruto said, arousing laughter from the MPs.

He instead urged the legislators drawn from the National Assembly and the Senate to use the available platforms within the coalition to iron out any issues of concern.

“The opposition’s job is to criticize the government and sometimes it’s easier to criticize the government and there is usually a huge temptation to join the criticism. You must remind yourself always that the government being criticised is yours so as you stand to criticize begin with yourself because this is your administration,” he added.

“If there are any issues that are of concern to anyone of us we have parliamentary group meetings, and caucuses like this one. We can seat here and correct us in-house and when we leave here we leave united to prosecute the agenda of the government that we set up.”

The President’s remarks come days after a standoff over the government’s plan to import genetically modified (GMO) maize, where some Kenya Kwanza MPs joined Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya coalition counterparts to protest against the decision.

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, who was on the frontline, said the move was ill-informed.

Cherargei noted that the move by the government would paralyse the maize farming sector and subsequently lead to its collapse.

“There is a deliberate move to continue killing the maize farms in this country as was seen in the previous regime where even the sugar sector and other farming sectors were killed, it seems that the cartels are now back into business, this time around, they appear more aggressive more ruthless, ” Cherargei stated.

“Furthermore, the ministry should cease the issuance of the gazette notice to allow the importation of 10 million duty-free bags or any other amount of bags in the country. We call upon the government to cease the importation of maize into the country,” the Senator added saying the duty-free maize would flood the market and lead to massive losses on the part of local farmers.

The protests, which were amplified by the opposition, led to the suspension of the importation plans for at least three months to prioritise the purchase of produce from local farmers.

The government had announced plans to import 10 million bags of maize to ease food shortages caused by the country’s worst drought in 40 years.