41 MPs from Central Kenya allied to Deputy President William Ruto on Thursday wrote a lecturing letter to President Uhuru Kenyatta telling him that they cannot sell ODM leader Raila Odinga as a presidential aspirant in the region in next year's General Election.
In the open letter, the MPs told Kenyatta that Mt Kenya region was hesitant to accept his handshake with Odinga and his Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) gospel due to the President's previous position on the ODM leader in the past two general elections.
“For 8 years, between 2011 and 2018, you consistently and persistently cautioned us that Raila Odinga was Kenya’s foremost problem, and pleaded with us to send him home for the country to move forward," the MPS said in the letter.
The MPs instead accused the former Prime Minister of dividing the country to ascend to power terming him a “an existential threat to the economy and national unity".
"We must be direct and truthful with you: We cannot sell Raila Odinga in our region or, indeed, any other imposed presidential candidate," the letter continues.
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The lawmakers allied to Deputy President William Ruto told Kenyatta to focus his energies during his remaining time to rebuild the ailing economy, health sector and spiraling debt.
"We wish you to roar the economy back into life, and take it to Kibaki-era levels of growth, reverse the declining economy, ailing health sector and deal with the elephant in the room of the crippling public debt, and especially the conflicted domestic debt that has strangled the private sector," the letter adds.
The Tangatanga MPs accused his Jubilee administration, which they all still belong to ironically, of tolerating harassment and persecution of leaders who hold divergent views to his.
They vowed to skip a meeting the Head of State convened in Sagana, Nyeri County with leaders from Central Kenya which has been revolting against him and the handshake.
However, soon after the letter was made public, Senate Majority Chief Whip Irungu Kang'ata distances himself from the letter by the pro-Ruto faction MPs saying his signature was forged.
The disowning by Kang’ata, whose signature is last in the shared letter, may now cast a huge doubt on whether all the 41 signatures of MPs who purportedly back the letter are authentic.