Deputy President William Ruto. Image via The Star

Deputy President William Ruto has hit back at ODM leader Raila Odinga and Wiper boss Kalonzo Musyoka for plotting to unite against his 2022 bid instead of presenting their agenda for the country. 

“I heard them saying that they want to unite so that they can beat Ruto. I want to tell them, let them look for policies and development agenda to sell to Kenyans. Uniting to beat someone cannot help anyone,”DP Ruto said on Saturday.

Raila and Kalonzo on Friday hinted at reuniting ahead of the polls to defeat ‘thieves' during the burial of former Kibwezi MP Kalembe Ndile.

Raila said he and Kalonzo have never broken ranks, adding that they would team-up to defeat people they described as hyenas in sheep’s clothing.

The duo worked together in the moribund Nasa that gave Jubilee a run for its money in the 2017 elections and were also in Cord in 2013.

“Mimi na Kalonzo hatuwezi kosana. Mimi na Kalonzo tutashikana tutoe hawa wezi, fisi waliovalia ngozi ya kondoo,” Raila said.

But the DP, speaking in Tala, Makueni county, told them to look for an agenda to woo Kenyans, warning that he would beat them at the polls if they don’t have proper development policies.

“You cannot just unite merely because you want to defeat somebody. What if you don’t defeat him? What will happen? And you don’t have an agenda?” he posed.

Ruto challenged the duo and those coalescing around them under Nasa to collapse their parties and form one formidable vehicle to face him next year. 

“I am giving them free advice. They are saying they are uniting and they have about 100 parties. Let them collapse their parties and form one, like ours so that we can compete,” he said.

Nasa brings together ODM, Wiper, Ford Kenya, ANC and Chama cha Mashinani.

However, Chama Cha Mashinani party leader Isaac Rutto has since shifted and pledged to support the DP.

Ruto said his ‘hustler movement’ has a clear agenda of transforming the country’s economy through the bottom-up economic model.

The agenda, he said, would ensure every Kenyan is actively engaged in an income generating activity though creating and development of small businesses.

“As hustler movement, we have an agenda for the transformation of our nation. That is why we are changing our economic model so that it is no longer trickle down where a few people and a few leaders benefit.

“But an agenda that makes sure that every ordinary citizen in Kenya, either has a job or an enterprise or a business so that we can expand the number of taxpayers in Kenya.

“We can raise sufficient money. We can earn more savings. We can develop our country using our own resources and we do not have to borrow from Chinese to run our nation. That is our plan,” he said. - Julius Otieno, The Star