Ruto takes war at Raila’s dooorstep over coronavirus cash theft
By People Team, August 26, 2020Eric Wainaina and Antony Mwangi
A war of words between Deputy President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga over multi-billion-shilling scandal at Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) escalated yesterday after when the former accused the ODM leader of plotting to shield individuals accused of embezzling Covid-19 funds.
He accused Raila of “glaring and obvious double speak” in the war against corruption, and termed his calls to have the Kemsa scandal audited by a special team, as a deliberate plot to sanitise individuals behind the alleged theft of cash meant for the fight against the pandemic.
Ruto cited incidents in the past where ODM leaders demanded that government officials including ministers linked to theft of public money take responsibility by stepping aside.
“From telling us to take political responsibility to telling us that people must step aside and be taken to court, now you are telling us, no, let’s do a special audit. Things have really changed,” Ruto said.
He accused Raila of “stammering and staggering,” over the scandal.
“All the investigative agencies are independent institutions. They do not need any guidance, any lectures and directions from anybody.
They will know what to do. They are looking for a detergent and sanitizers for the laundrymat they run,” he said.
Dr Jonah Manjari, the agency’s chief executive, Eliud Muriithi (commercial director) and Charles Juma (procurement director) were last week suspended from office by a board led by former Murang’a Senator Kembi Gitura to facilitate a probe by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
Ruto spoke at a meeting with church leaders at his Karen residence.
On Monday, Raila who has found himself on the receiving end over claims of defending the Covid-19 money scam, said a special audit had also worked well in the case of Arror and Kimwarer dams, whereby the truth was established when the Auditor-General probed the Sh60 billion scandal.
A similar approach, Raila said, also worked with regard to the National Youth Service scam where in 2016, the office of the Auditor-General was able to establish that Kenyan taxpayers lost Sh1.9 billion in the scandal and proceeded to identify the principal beneficiaries of the theft.
But in a swift rejoinder, ODM has Ruto to resign and resort to activism in the social media.
The party also accused the DP of distorting Raila’s statement, saying its main emphasis was an audit to ascertain the truth.
“We know Ruto and “audit” are not the best of friends, but we do remember that when a fake arms scandal happened right in his office, he asked for proper investigations and labelled media stories “nonsense”.
We seek the indulgence of his memory in pointing out that ODM has also asked the media in this current case to stick to facts, because accusations of corruption without facts only help the real culprits hide behind the noise,” said secretary general Edwin Sifuna.