I cannot remember President Kenyatta giving me any cabinet docket – Ruto
By George Brian, March 7, 2022
Deputy President William Ruto now claims that President Uhuru Kenyatta has never shared government dockets with him ever since they came to power in 2017.
Speaking in the United Kingdom where he held an interactive session at Chatham House on Monday, DP Ruto dismissed claims that President Uhuru delegated half of the government dockets to him.
Ruto’s statement comes weeks after President Kenyatta gave a contrary statement regarding state appointments in the first term of his regime. During his address to the Mt Kenya residents at Sagana, President Kenyatta pointed out that government dockets such as the Agriculture ministry were left for DP Ruto to make appointments.
The DP’s statement also contradicts claims that he and President Kenyatta equally divided the government which saw his allies hold crucial government dockets such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Labour, and the National Treasury among others.
Ruto has, however, come out to deny the claims noting that all the government appointments were made by the president even though they both played a part in the formation of the Jubilee administration.
Ruto said that President Kenyatta was in charge of all government dockets including their Parliamentary Group Meetings.
“In our first term, we ran a coalition government but I can tell you, there was no single day I held a single Parliamentary Group meeting without the President. We had one PG, one government, one programme and everything was all clear,” Ruto said.
“There were no dockets given to me. I did not appoint any minister anywhere within the government. Everyone was appointed by the President,” he added.
Ruto further claimed that President Uhuru pushed him outside the government in their second term even though he was willing to work with him to deliver their promises to Kenyans.
The DP claimed that his boss threw him outside the government because he (Uhuru) did not want to include him in his legacy as the fourth President of Kenya.
“In the second 2nd term, the president told me that he wanted to do things differently and he did not want the government to be run as UhuRuto. He wanted his legacy as alone as the fourth president of Kenya,” he said.