Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua used the National Prayer Breakfast on Wednesday to praise President William Ruto for reaching out to people who he claims mistreated him during the previous administration.
The DP stated that the theme of this year’s National Prayer Breakfast, Reconciliation, was timely, as the Kenya Kwanza government seeks to work with some of the people who voted against it in the last election.
He said this was evident in the recent appointments and promotions to government positions.
He claimed that at last year’s event, also held at Safari Park, a protocol officer removed Dr. Ruto’s seat from the high table occupied by former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“The last national prayer breakfast here was a very toxic affair, full of tension and hatred. The President, who was his deputy today, did not want to sit at the same table with his boss…and when we were trying to rally people around the President, many people around us, we were persuaded that the lady who removed the chair where Dr. William Ruto was supposed to sit should be shown the door… but when the President came to know, he said no, we have to reconcile with reality. That is behind us, the lady who is in the protocol should stay there and be promoted,” the DP said.
Rigathi claimed that the same employee is now working around the president despite humiliating him during the previous regime when the president’s seat was far from the table that Mr. Kenyatta shared with Chief Justice Martha Koome and former Attorney General Paul Kihara.
On the other hand, Dr. Ruto shared the table at the National Prayer Breakfast with former National Assembly Speakers Justin Muturi and Ken Lusaka, the current Bungoma County Governor.
The DP added that some government officials who were behind the removal of Dr Ruto’s belongings from his official residence in Mombasa should have been removed from the government but President Ruto intervened and saved their jobs.
Mr. Gachagua urged the leaders of the Azimio La Umoja One Coalition Kenya to also come to terms with the reality that the election is over and Dr. Ruto “was the President of Kenya”.
“The new government is the one that is convinced that we need to reconcile the country and so we want to plead and persuade all the leaders to reconcile with the truth and the reality. So, as we reconcile with God and with people, let us begin to reconcile with the truth.”
The Azimio leaders skipped the National Prayer Breakfast despite being invited, claiming in the letter that the Kenya Kwanza would use the occasion to settle their political scores.