Deputy President William Ruto has admitted that there is a strained relationship between him and President Uhuru Kenyatta.
In a live interview aired on Citizen TV, the DP said he has faced humiliation in his position as Uhuru’s assistant and the president has done little to protect him.
This, the DP has said, will not happen when he becomes the president one day.
According to him, there are people that are on a mission to stop him from realising his presidential ambitions in 2022 hence the mistreatment he gets from them
“Given the opportunity to be President, I would not allow my Deputy President to be humiliated the way I have been humiliated,” said DP Ruto.
The former Eldoret North MP however vowed to stand firm in his position and serve Kenyans until his term comes to an end in 2022.
“I am not going to give them an opportunity to push me out of this government,“ he went on.
The former agriculture minister said that his second term in office with Uhuru has not been as smooth as the first term even though he maintains he speaks to the president.
“You cannot with certainty say that you monitor when I talk or not talk to my boss…admittedly we have challenges …It is in the public domain that the way we worked up until 2017 is different to the way we work now. It is a choice of style…”
It is on the second term that the Uhuru-Ruto government has been intruded, with key people such as former prime minister Raila Odinga and Interior CS Fred Matiang’i having more influence than him.
However, the DP went ahead to defend himself, saying that his only responsibility is to advise the president and that Uhuru is at liberty to decide whether to listen to him or not.
“The role of a deputy president is that of a principal assistant to the president. But the president has latitude, my space is to advise him, which I have been very honest about. But if he decides to consult more with opposition leader and Cabinet Secretaries, I have taken it with grace.”
Other than his relationship with President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ruto was also questioned on his decision to take the controversial Sputnik Vaccine instead of AstraZeneca.
He said that he took the vaccine because he could afford it, adding that he was not invited to State House to take the Astrazeneca jab together with Uhuru and other top government officials.
