MPs allied to the Azimio la Umoja movement yesterday reacted angrily to recent attacks on President Uhuru Kenyatta and his government by the UDA politicians.

They claimed Deputy President William Ruto and his supporters have been organising platforms whose agenda is to malign the person, character and family of the President.

Led by Jubilee Party secretary general Jeremiah Kioni and Dagoretti North MP Simba Arati, the MPs told a press conference at Parliament Buildings Ruto has been exhibiting aggression, anger and warmongering tendencies, actions that they said were likely to create tension in the country.

Independent bodies

This came on a day the President said no amount of abusive language will deter him from working to ensure the country is peaceful and united under the spirit of the “handshake”.

Uhuru spoke yesterday when he addressed wananchi at the Kenyatta Market in Nairobi after an inspection tour of the facility. He also had a moment to enjoy nyama choma, a delicacy associated with the market.

The market is set to receive a major face-lift to provide traders with improved workspaces and enable customers to enjoy better services.

The Kioni team said the trend started at the Kenya Kwanza rally at Thika Stadium Saturday and intensified at the UDA National Delegates Conference at Kasarani Stadium Tuesday.

“The rally at Thika quickly metamorphosed from a political event to an enclave for brewing animosity, negative ethnic indoctrination and blatant incitement,” read a statement signed by over 20 MPs.

They accused the DP of politicising independent bodies, a move they claimed was aimed at slowing them down on their operations.

“During the NDC, Ruto delved into a litany of well-choreographed and thinly veiled digs at independent constitutional bodies – KRA, EACC, DCI and The Judiciary – pledging to throw accountability out of the window and fully embrace impunity should he get elected at the 2022 General Election,” they said.

The lawmakers wondered how the DP would attack independent bodies, even as some of the key speakers during the event, they claimed, were known for tax evasion, corruption and embezzlement of public funds.

“The irony was that on the front row of the NDC’s VIP section, were the faces of impunity, corruption, embezzlement, thuggery and tax evasion in Kenya. There were at least two convicted persons at the NDC’s VIP dais,” the MPs said.

The MPs dismissed the attacks on President Kenyatta as a litany of unfounded lies that, if not countered, could cause division in a country that has a streak of violence around general elections.

“It should be remembered that the last time such reckless expressions were entertained, this country descended into chaos where more than 1,300 lives were lost, property worth billions of shillings obliterated and thousands rendered homeless,” they warned.

They said that Ruto has been accusing Uhuru of betrayal and ungratefulness while cunningly avoiding the real reasons why he fell out with the President.

“It is in the public domain that soon after election in 2017, the UDA Party leader, blinded by greed for power and money, abandoned the cause of national unity and delivery, and immediately embarked on an unparalleled looting spree that almost crippled this country,” they said.

The DP, they said, had for the last four and a half years, done nothing but campaign as the President focused on fulfilling his election promises to Kenyans.

“In an exaggerated guilt-tripping scheme, William Ruto purported to have been subjected to untold suffering and immense trauma and that he had left the President to God,” the MPs said.

They went on to hit at some of the leaders who addressed the NDC, singling Jimi Wanjigi whom they accused of pushing for tenders involving huge projects leading to loss of billions of shillings in public funds.

On claims that it was the DP who helped the President out of the International Criminal Court cases, the MPs said that, contrary to the allegations, it was Uhuru who played a major role in ending Ruto’s case at the ICC.

“It is in his case where witnesses were bribed, threatened, and killed to conceal the evidence, but the truth is now coming out. His role in what happened to Kenyans in Rift Valley is finally being unmasked and the truth will be told one day,” the MPs said.