NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 24 – President William Ruto says former President Uhuru Kenyatta declined his appeal to step above partisan politics and help shape a long-term vision for Kenya.
Ruto says he met Kenyatta in Ichaweri and Nairobi and urged him, as a former Head of State, to work with other senior leaders for the benefit of the next generation.
“My predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta had an option, you know, to become a statesman and rise above uh politics and, you know, become a unifying, you know, uh factor as a in a country. But he chose to climb down and become an opposition leader,” Ruto said in an interview held at the State House, Nairobi.
The Head of State linked former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s continued opposition to his administration to the outcome of the 2022 General Election.
The President also recalled Kenyatta’s prediction that his administration would fail within three months, citing the economic challenges Kenya faced at the time.
“My predecessor has not gotten over out of what happened in 2022, that despite everything he did, I won the election. Secondly, he made a prediction himself in public, before a whole PG of Azimio, that William Ruto was going to fail within 3 months.”
“I am sure he has a problem that I managed and we did not default. The tattered economy that he left, today is in a different place. We brought inflation down. We’ve enhanced our foreign exchange reserves almost three times. We’ve managed interest rates. We’ve managed exchange rates. The country is stable. Kenya is now the sixth largest economy in Africa and we have changed the perception of the country in terms of investor confidence,” he said.
