NYERI, Kenya Feb 23 – President Uhuru Kenyatta has for the first time spoken out publicly on why he chose to greet Opposition chief Raila Odinga, and dismissed talk that he kept his deputy William Ruto in the dark.
Speaking in his native Kikuyu at the Sagana State Lodge on Wednesday, Kenyatta said Kenya was stalled and all he was interested with was peace.
And he declared, he is ready to hand over power to Odinga as his prefered successor because he is capable of steering the economy.
“The person I will hand power to and you all know him and you have been mentioning his name, will inherit 13 trillion economy from me yet I inherited a 5 trillion economy from Kibaki. Then someone out there says I have done nothing. I cannot risk handing over to someone who will not take care of this economy and I am saying it here without fear. I will hand over to that person, the one that you all know,” Kenyatta said.
He told the meeting that he briefed Ruto on his planned handshake with Raila even before he did it.
“I briefed him until the last minute when I was going to greet my friend,” Kenyatta said at the Sagana III meeting on Wednesday, where he castigated his Deputy for lying to Kenyans.
“It was all about peace,” Kenyatta told a cheering crowd in his Mt Kenya backyard.
“He was of course opposed to it (handshake) because he knows he has government security but what about the common man down there, that is the person I was mindful about because the country was literally stalled, we all wanted peace.”
Kenyatta told the meeting he chose to work with Raila for the sake of peace and has asked them to support his choice.
“They are saying I support him (Raila) as my successor. Yes that is true I will give him the government,” Kenyatta said.
