Happening Now: Raila addresses the nation
We’re ahead of Azimio by 8 points, Ruto tells Kibicho
Deputy President William Ruto has trashed claims that his main competitor in the August 9 presidential race, ODM leader Raila Odinga, is leading with a popularity rate of 60 percent.
Dr Ruto said he was instead eight percentage points ahead of Mr Odinga.
The Deputy President was reacting to claims by Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho that government intelligence reports had shown that Mr Odinga would win the presidency by garnering 60 per cent of the total vote if elections were held around this time.
The DP dismissed Dr Kibicho and Information Communication Technology (ICT) Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru as "contemptuous propagandists" who were abusing their offices by spreading “propaganda and rumours” while campaigning for Mr Odinga.
Dr Ruto did not disclose details of his alleged lead.
“I am the Deputy President. I get intelligence reports, right after the President receives them. No other person can claim to have access to any other intelligence report. In fact, the true picture of those reports is that we in Kenya Kwanza are leading by eight percentage points. They should look for other ways to market their candidate,” Dr Ruto said in Makueni.
He said he would release the genuine figures and asked Kenyans to ignore the statistics being peddled by "misguided employees” of the government.
"These government employees who are our juniors are lying on public TV by peddling fictitious data. I dare them to publish it if it exists in the version they claim," said Dr Ruto.
Mr Mucheru, while speaking on Inooro TV, said government intelligence was by May 25 showing that Mr Odinga would take the presidency in the first round after garnering 50 per cent plus one votes.
Commanding a 60 per cent lead
For his part, Dr Kibicho declared on Citizen TV that he had received government intel that showed Mr Odinga commanding a 60 per cent lead.
"The government intelligence has Mr Odinga leading with 60 percentage points...we do not work with perceptions, we are guided by researched facts and that is as it is," he said.
But on Thursday, Dr Ruto said as the second-in-command he gets security briefs right after the President.
Dr Ruto added: "These two characters are ordinary people who should respect the people who gave them jobs."
He said Dr Kibicho and Mr Mucheru were “full of themselves, emitting nothing but pride, abrasiveness and contempt."
The Deputy President said: "We in Kenya Kwanza beat our competitors in Azimio with vision, focus, plans and brains."
He challenged Mr Mucheru and Dr Kibicho to leave government service and join politics instead of using their positions to campaign for Mr Odinga through propaganda and rumours.
"Let them join the competitive field of electoral politics instead of hiding in their offices misusing the privileges and power attached to those offices to play the role of propagandists and rumour mongers for our competitors."
He said the President had been failed by people who were supposed to be helping him deliver the Jubilee promise.
"I kept off when the individuals surrounding him started their spite and highhandedness...," he said.
During the TV interview, Mr Mucheru noted Mr Odinga's competitors had started panicking and had resorted to “insults and lies to Kenyans that some of us in government are planning to rig them out”.
Reject the election results
Mr Mucheru accused the Kenya Kwanza Alliance of trying to prepare their supporters to reject the election results using government officers as a scapegoat.
He challenged them to accept defeat if they will be beaten fairly, adding that no one was interested in stealing their votes.
He termed it ironical for someone to be planning to steal the vote while at the same time holding a series of meetings with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, the security agencies, the media, the judiciary, the National Integration and Cohesion Commission, diplomats, political parties and the clergy on how to make the elections a success.
On Thursday (yesterday) morning, Dr Ruto led a KKA delegation to meet European Union officials, where he restated his concerns over what he termed a credible plot to manipulate the vote, with Kandara MP Alice Wahome insisting that "credibility of the vote is key in having Kenya Kwanza accept the results".
