Waiguru Tells Ruto To Stay Put On Planned Opposition Protests

Kirinyaga County Governor Anne Waiguru has urged President William Ruto not to be distracted by threats from opposition leaders to hold demonstrations against Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC)’s conduct in the last General Election.

Waiguru was speaking on Sunday at Kerugoya Stadium during interdenominational thanksgiving in which President Ruto was the Chief Guest.

The governor, who is also the Chairperson of the Council of Governors (COG), said that those planning to carry out demonstrations are just looking for relevance having lost in the elections and as such, the president should ignore them.

“Let us not dwell on issues that will distract us from the path that we have taken to forge as one for the development of our nation,” said the governor.

She said that if they did not manage to defeat the president when they had the power they won’t manage when he is on God’s side as well as with the government.

“They oppressed, intimidated those who supported you and left you out in running of government, yet you managed to defeat them, why do they think they will manage to distract you now? They should not even try to intimidate you,” said Waiguru.

She urged Ruto not to answer them but let his foot soldiers deal with them saying that if they were clever politicians they would by now have aligned themselves with the government and looked for opportunities in which to participate in nation building.

The governor noted that Ruto had changed the conversation in the country and the country has now united and moved from politics to development. 

Her sentiments were echoed by other leaders including Embu Governor Cecily Mbarire who said that Raila’s tactics of using demonstrations to get what he wants will no longer work. She said that there were known people who are funding the demonstrations and threatened to call them out if they did not stop distracting the country.

She said that it was time for him to hand over the Nyanza leadership mantle to younger leaders and retire to advisory roles.  She noted that if there was any evidence of electoral malpractices it was supposed to have been produced in the Supreme Court.   

On her part, Kirinyaga Women Representative Jane Maina said that Raila has had a history of calling for demonstrations for his own selfish interests.

All Kirinyaga MPs and MCAs present pledged their loyalty to President Ruto and said they will give him all the support he needed to move the country forward.