Deputy President William Ruto on Tuesday revealed that former Prime Minister Raila Odinga approached him a number of times before the March 9, 2018 handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Raila approached me 4 times before the handshake - DP Ruto spills
DP Ruto tells all
DP William Ruto who stated that former PM Raila Odinga approached him 4 times before the March 2018 handshake (Twitter)
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In an interview on Citizen TV, the DP stated that the special AU envoy tried to hold talks with him on four times before he held talks with President Kenyatta but he declined.
"Let me give you a bit of background, before Raila Odinga engaged the president on the matter of the handshake he engaged me. He approached me on four different occasions after the elections to have a discussion but I declined.
File image of DP William Ruto
Pulse Live Kenya
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"I declined for two reasons, first, in Jubilee we have the central command and that is President Kenyatta who is also the party leader. Any engagements especially on political matter must start with him.
"The second reason is that I was not persuaded that he [Raila] was doing this in good faith," the DP disclosed.
He added that on every advance the former PM made, the President was made aware and Dr Ruto explicitly told the President that he was not willing to have the proposed talks.
Raila's phone calls put me off - DP Ruto
The DP went on to divulge that aside from sending emissaries, Mr Odinga made two particular phone calls that raised red flags for the DP.
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DP William Ruto and Opposition leader Raila Odinga
Pulse Live Kenya
"On two occasions we spoke on the phone and I could hear the trend, 'oh, well, you know the president has begun to appoint ministers...' and I explained to him that initially we were running a coalition but today we have one party and the president is the head of this party," Dr Ruto relayed.
The DP added that in his assessment, the former PM was trying to imply that he [Ruto] was being shortchanged by the President.
According to Ruto, President Kenyatta eventually involved him before talks with Mr Odinga advanced into the handshake.
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