President William Ruto has reiterated his past sentiments of working with his political rivals in the Raila Odinga-led
Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party, saying he will not incorporate any member of the opposition in his administration.
The Head of State underlined that his Kenya Kwanza fold had taken control of both Houses, the National Assembly and the Senate, and is now focused on delivering their mandate to Kenyans.
This, he said, will only be achieved by ensuring there is a stark difference between the government and the opposition,
which will hence be tasked with keeping the administration of the day on its toes for accountability purposes.
“We have accepted that we are not going to appoint any member of the opposition into government because we want a vibrant opposition.
We want an opposition that will keep the government in check because we have nothing to hide and we want to run an accountable government,” he said.
Ruto, who spoke as he opened the Kenya Kwanza Parliamentary Group retreat in Naivasha on Friday, also stated:
“We appreciate their role, we wish them well and we will play our role as effective as we can. Let us take the responsibility put on our shoulders by the people of Kenya seriously.”
The Commander-in-Chief consequently shrugged off Azimio’s claims that they have majority members in the Parliament as he cited Kenya Kwanza’s recent victory in the race for speaker of both Houses.
Ford Kenya party leader Moses Wetangula, who was fronted by Kenya Kwanza, beat Azimio’s candidate Kenneth Marende to clinch the National Assembly Speaker’s seat.
In the Senate, former Kilifi Governor and PAA leader Amason Kingi was declared the new Speaker after Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka stepped down at the last minute.
According to President Ruto, these wins mean Kenya Kwanza has more numbers, hence exuding confidence that his faction will clinch the majority leader seats in both Houses as the showdown looms.
“I have heard them try to say they have some numbers, if you cannot even raise a candidate for the Speaker of the Senate what numbers do you really have?
Let’s be honest with ourselves, there is no need to bring contest where there is none,” said President Ruto.
“We are going to have the leadership of the House discussion tomorrow (Saturday), we are going to (deliberate) on who will be the leader of the majority in the National Assembly and Senate.”