Ruto on BBI: Uhuru, Raila wasted our time, resources
Deputy President William Ruto has asked President Uhuru Kenyatta and his handshake partner, Raila Odinga to apologize to Kenyans for wasting their time and resources, by pursuing a ‘fraudulent’ project in the name of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
On Thursday, the Supreme Court quashed the BBI, terming it unconstitutional.
Speaking when he led the Kenya Kwanza brigade in a campaign rally at the Mkunguni Square in Lamu Town on Thursday afternoon, DP Ruto stated that he expected nothing but an apology from the promoters of BBI to Kenyans.
DP Ruto said the BBI promoters wasted four years of Kenyan’s time, sabotaging the Big Four plan that was going to give jobs to young people in favour of an irrelevant exercise meant to satisfy the selfish interest of a few people.
He thanked the Supreme Court for ensuring justice prevails for the many Kenyans that were against the BBI project.
“Today you’ve heard the Supreme Court has rejected the BBI since it was a fraudulent exercise that ended up misusing billions of public funds. They were going around claiming no one can stop reggae. Today, the alleged reggae has stopped,” said DP Ruto.
He added, “Now I want to tell our friends-the handshake brothers and the BBI fraud, they visited on the people of Kenya and now that it is confirmed by the Supreme Court that the BBI and all the shenanigans around it, were matters that were unconstitutional, illegal, null and void, the handshake brothers need to make an apology to the people of Kenya."
He insisted that now that the court finally made the determination that the BBI process was illegal, unconstitutional, null, and void,
“The least I expect from the promoters of the BBI nonsense is for them to own up and apologize to the people of Kenya that they wasted our four precious years, sabotaged the Big Four agenda, and have spent billions of public resources on a process and project that is illegal and unconstitutional," he said.
He added; " Uhurua and Raila need to apologize to the people of Kenya so that they can walk in this country, knowing very well that they did what was unconstitutional and what was wrong.”
Kenya Kwanza partner and ANC party leader, Musalia Mudavadi also thanked the Supreme Court, terming the Thursday BBI ruling that stopped the whole matter as a new dawn to the independence of the various institutions, particularly the Judiciary in the country.
Mr Mudavadi said despite the court, having stated that civil proceedings cannot be initiated against the President, as Kenya Kwanza, they need accountability since the same court also clearly stated that it was evidence public funds were used in undertaking the BBI process.
“For four years pursuing the BBI, over Sh20 billion taxpayers' money was spent badly. We need accountability. We want taxpayers’ money back. That’s why we’re asking for all those involved to be investigated and prosecuted so that the money can be taken back to Kenyans,” said Mr Mudavadi.
He added, “We can’t have a government that is experimenting on the people of Kenya every time, every year, and every season. We want to tell them, we can’t accept that.”
Fork-Kenya Leader, Moses Wetangula also lauded the Supreme Court for the decision to throw away the BBI.
Mr Wetangula said they were ready to set up an inquiry to find out how much money was spent on BBI, who authorized that particular expenditure, and ensure every individual that was involved is held to account.
“The BBI was nothing but a secret by President Kenyatta to create positions for his pertinent powers. The BBI has resulted in a high cost of living for Kenyans. Kenyans are suffering due to the high food prices. And that's why we’re telling them to ensure on August 9, they elect William Samoei Ruto as their fifth President. The Kenya Kwanza government will fix all these challenges faced by citizens today,” said Mr Wetangula.
Accompanying the DP during the Lamu tour was Garissa Township MP, Aden Duale, Tharaka Nithi Senator, Kithure Kindiki, Malindi MP, Aisha Jumwa.
Others were Tana River Governor hopeful Hussein Dado, former Mombasa Senator, Hassan Omar, Lamu Senator, Anwar Loitiptip, Lamu East MP Athman Sharif among others.
