Azimio condemns Ruto over death threats to investors
3 min read
Azimio leaders call out President William Ruto for threatening select investors in the sugar industry with death
Azimio leaders call out President William Ruto for threatening select investors in the sugar industry with death.
Azimio la Umoja Coalition leaders have criticized President William Ruto’s tough stance against a few tycoons whom he claimed are exploiting the sugar industry in the country.
During his tour of Western Kenya on Monday, the president insisted that he would not allow individuals, he argued were cartels, to operate within the sugar industry.
Ruto specifically challenged the people to either leave the country, risk jail term or “go to heaven.”
“There are cartels there. I have told them to leave. The company belongs to the people and we should streamline it. There is no case there,” Ruto said in Nzoia, Bungoma County.
“If they want a fight, they should leave Kenya or I will jail them or they should go to heaven.”
The comments, however, rattled some Azimio leaders who argued that the statements amounted to a public trial.
In a media interview, Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka insisted that the accused deserved a chance to be heard or be tried in a court of law.
“I would like to sincerely plead with our President, his actions and utterances mean something. When a President stands up and talks about an individual, that individual, whether he has broken the law or not, is put in a position where I see unfairness,” stated Onyonka while speaking on Citizen TV.
“We must protect due process very vigilantly. If someone has broken the law, let him go through the process. Let the President not be the person who makes announcements in public where he is accusing an individual because then he is trying this individual in advance.”
Philip Etale, ODM Communications Director argued that President William Ruto’s address was not synonymous with a Head of State.
Ruto’s death threats to Sugar tycoons came a few hours after Rai Group Billionaire Jaswant Rai was kidnapped by unknown men and later released.
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President Ruto openly claimed Rai was frustrating the government’s plan to revitalize sugar companies in the Western regions.
He argued that privately owned sugar millers were profitable while those run by the state reeled under debts.
As a result, he wrote off a debt amounting to Ksh117 billion that five millers owed but warned that he would not pump money into companies that would not generate profit.
“Do not be worried, I am alert to make sure everything will be okay. There is no one who will meddle,” the President assured residents of reviving the sugar industry.
“Do not be worried about someone coming to talk to us. Someone was telling me Rai. Who is Rai? No, that is not possible,” Ruto warned while speaking at Uwanja Ndege Grounds in Bungoma County on Sunday.
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