Deputy president William Ruto has blamed “the handshake government” for the series of insecurity incidents that have been witnessed in a number of counties like Samburu, Laikipia, Marsabit, Baringo, West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet especially in Kerio Valley in the past few years.
According to him, when they took up the leadership of the country, he had come up with solution that would have ensured that there is security in the affected regions only for the government to scrap that later.
“When we came into office, I called all the leaders in Elgeyo Markwet, West Pokot, Samburu, and we had a serious leaders meeting in my office in Karen and because of that meeting for about 3 years we went round, we mobilized all the governors and we provided a national police reserve in all those areas.
“The situation was under control but when we came into the handshake arrangement, a false narrative was ruled out that all these national police reserves in Elgeyo Marakwet, Baringo, West Pokot were actually a militia that William Ruto would use at some point and all the national police reserves were withdrawn, a very reckless act, and with the withdrawal of the police reserves, the situation went South,” Ruto stated during the presidential debate.
He added that the withdrawal was a move to punish him even though many people have lost their lives. Over 100 people have been killed due to insecurity reasons in Kerio valley this year alone. Ruto added that he has been forced to use his personal resources to compensate the victims in one way or another.
“We have buried many of those people with our own money. We have taken many of those people to hospital with our own money. I have deployed my personal resources to deal with that situation because I know it was a political agenda, the withdrawal of the national police reserve was really an unfortunate act, but because it was intended to punish William Ruto never mind that many people lost their lives it a real tragedy that is the nature of politics in our country,” the DP said.
Ruto further said that the Aror and Kimwarer dam projects were canceled intentionally to punish him and his supporters, yet it was another solution for the insecurity that has rocked the region for years.
According to him, one of the reasons why the communities have been fighting is because of scarce resources including water.
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