Deputy President William Ruto has asked politicians campaigning for Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) to stop making him the subject of their rallies.<\/p>\n
He said the politicians were free to campaign for the document, but should leave his name and insults out of their meetings.Dr Ruto said: \u201cI saw yesterday (Saturday) insults formed half of the meeting. There was less mention of BBI than mention of Ruto and his home in Sugoi.<\/p>\n
\u201dHe said the politicians should concentrate on asking Kenyans what they would prefer to be in the document rather than trivialising the forums.<\/p>\n
The DP spoke on Sunday during a prayer service at Kyumbi Catholic Church in Maanzoni, Machakos County.He was accompanied by MPs Victor Munyaka (Machakos Town), Vincent Musyoka (Mwala) Fabian Muli (Kangundo), Kimani Ichungwa (Kikuyu) and Nimrod Mbai (Kitui East).<\/p>\n
At the same time, Ruto urged the BBI taskforce to come up with a countrywide programme and seek to accommodate the views of every Kenyan.<\/p>\n
He urged leaders from across the political divide to respect those with divergent views and give them space to freely express themselves.\u201cThere is no need to hold people with a different opinion in contempt to the extent of denying them an opportunity to express themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The MPs said BBI meetings had been turned into platforms to insult and disparage some Kenyans, a situation they said was dividing the country further.They faulted use of the police to stop Mumias rally that had been planned for Saturday, saying security forces should not be used to gag divergent views.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf BBI was about inclusivity and political tolerance, why can\u2019t we stand contrasting political views?\u201d posed Mr Ichungwa.The Kikuyu MP said BBI is meant to unite Kenyans, then it should not be used to insult Ruto.\u00a0\u201cThose who want to insult Ruto should wait for 2022 campaigns,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Muli said the police should be given space to fight terrorism and crime.\u201cWe need to respect the independence of the police. They should be given time to do their job,\u201d he said.Mr Munyaka wondered why there were a lot of violence and police brutality in this year\u2019s constitution amendment push yet the country had witnessed two peaceful referendums before.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had referendum campaigns in 2005 and 2010 that did not have any violence. What is so special about this BBI that it has to be forced down the throats of Kenyans?\u201d he posed.Ichungwa further said the country\u2019s unity can easily be achieved if leaders embrace honesty in their politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we end the politics of dishonesty, deceit and hypocrisy in leadership, we will cure the problems that we have in this country,\u201d he said.Mr Mbai said BBI was dividing rather than uniting Kenyans because of retrogressive politics employed by those in charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deputy President William Ruto has asked politicians campaigning for Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) to stop making him the subject of their rallies. He said the politicians were free to campaign for the document, but should leave his name and insults out of their meetings.Dr Ruto said: \u201cI saw yesterday (Saturday) insults formed half of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,10,12],"tags":[364,235,265,314],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-parties","category-policy","tag-364","tag-bbi","tag-building-bridges-initiative","tag-deputy-president-william-ruto"],"yoast_head":"\n