By Olivia Mungwana.
Deputy President William Ruto has requested that the United States and the international community act to prevent alleged attempts to sway the results of Kenya’s presidential election on August 9th.
Ruto, who is running for president in the upcoming elections, believes that a group of persons is attempting to persuade people to vote a specific way by using blackmail, coercion, and the criminal justice system.
“As a leader, I have taken the position to speak against any attempts to try and straightjacket people into predetermined outcomes. We would have expected to do this without the baggage of blackmail and intimidation that is going on but unfortunately that is where we are,” said Ruto as quoted by a local daily.
Ruto, said that at Loyola University in Maryland’s Karson Institute for Race, Peace, and Social Justice on Tuesday, also said that some government institutions were out to influence people and make judgments on their account.
The deputy president also expressed concern about the country’s democracy, saying it was in jeopardy.
“There is a huge pushback by citizens against any attempts to choreograph the next dispensation. We want to make our choices without being chaperoned, blackmailed or intimidated,” he said.
“We are looking forward to partnership of friends and people of goodwill. America has been a partner and a friend and has stood with us during the good and the bad times. With other members of the international community, we are looking forward to working together in that endeavor.”
The presidential candidate of the UDA party is now on a 10-day foreign tour that will take him to the United States and the United Kingdom.
He is joined by Kenya Kwanza Alliance leader Musalia Mudavadi, as well as Governors Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga), Josphat Nanok (Turkana), and Salim Mvurya (Kwale).
