Trade Secretary Moses Kuria on Sunday, July 9, affirmed that he is ready to personally defend President William Ruto from attacks, both political and physical.
In a statement, the outspoken politician insisted that all Kenyans, including former President Uhuru Kenyatta, must respect the Head of State and acknowledge that he won the elections.
“Mr Uhuru Kenyatta must respect President William Ruto and accept that he won the elections. This country is bigger than Uhuru and his personal interests,” Kuria declared.
“I’ll personally defend and safeguard this government as I did to my fellow constituency mate when he was the president. The Mt Kenya region is both a great shareholder and beneficiary of this government and we won’t take the nonsense anymore.”
Kuria’s declaration came amid UDA accusations that the former Head of State played a central role in organising the opposition’s Saba Saba anti-government protests that took place on Friday, July 7.
In the protests that saw six people lose their lives and several others sustain injuries, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga kickstarted a 10-million signatures collection drive aimed at delegitimising Ruto’s government.
On the same day, Kuria insinuated that the drive was Uhuru’s brainchild aimed at keeping former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who spearheaded the protests, out of the streets.
“I really like this 10 Million signatures thing. It is Uhuru’s way of keeping Raila busy and out of the streets,” he stated.
Other leaders allied with President Ruto also claimed that Uhuru chaired a meeting with Azimio legislators on July 6, where they crafted countermeasures to disrupt government activities.
Dennis Itumbi claimed that the collection of 10 million signatures to unseat the Head of State formed the main agenda of the meeting.
“After an early morning meeting at Raila Odinga’ Kerarapon home between Former President Uhuru and Raila Odinga today. A secret emergency meeting was called by Azimio.
“The meeting agreed that there would be no maandamano in Nairobi and that instead, they would go to Kamukunji grounds and launch the website and public collection of signatures,” Itumbi claimed.
Raila, however, insisted that the protests were held countrywide to compel Ruto to lower the cost of living, lower fuel prices and maintain transparency in the recruitment of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioners.
Kuria and Uhuru, who hail from Gatundu South Constituency, enjoyed a close relationship during the former Head of State’s first term but grew distant during his second term when the former shifted his allegiance to Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) camp.
