Ruto calls Raila’s petition a tragicomedy akin to Shakespeare’s Poetry
3 min readRuto calls Raila’s petition a tragicomedy akin to Shakespeare’s Poetry urging the Supreme Court bench to dismiss it.
Raila Odinga, a presidential candidate for Azimio la Umoja, filed a petition disputing President-Elect William Ruto’s election, but Ruto dismissed it, calling it “mere poetry” that could only be compared to Shakespeare’s poetry.
Ruto’s 256-page response to Odinga’s petition claims it is so dramatic that he can only compare it to works of fiction by William Shakespeare, the internationally renowned playwright, poet, and actor also known as the Bard of Avon or England’s national poet.
“It is a story full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” Ruto said of Odinga’s petition, quoting Shakespear’s famous words such as “controversies that are Much ado about nothing.”
“The overall impression that the reading of the petition and the surrogate petitions left in my mind, especially when viewed against the 1st Petitioner’s thirty-year pattern of striking similar acts after every presidential election is that of a tragicomedy akin to William Shakespear’s words about a story full of sound and fury, signifying nothing and controversies that are much ado about nothing.”
William Ruto in his response is urging the Supreme Court bench to dismiss Raila’s petition, describing him as a perennial loser seeking a hand-shake to share government.
He added Raila is known to dispute all presidential election outcomes so as to force a handshake that results to a coalition government, citing a 2012 pact with the later Mwai Kibaki and 2017 when he shook hands with the outgoing President who supported him in August polls.
“The first common feature that underlies Odinga’s thirty-year pattern of strikingly similar acts after every presidential election is disingenuous disputation of presidential election results as a means of forcing the winner to share power through unconventional and extra-constitutional government arrangements popularly known as a handshake,” Ruto said in an affidavit filed by his lawyers Friday.
In seeking to convince judges to dismiss Odinga’s petition, Ruto said “Kenyans have already moved on from the electioneering euphoria as evidenced by the peace and calmness that followed the declaration of the results of the election and the reopening of most businesses.”
In response to the petition, Ruto has provided an IEBC certificate certifying his election as president, a Gazette Notice confirming the same, statements from observers who gave the election a clean bill of health, and numerous statements from Odinga and the chairman of the electoral commission before, during, and after the elections.
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