President William Ruto has defended US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman after opposition leader Raila Odinga threatened her over remarks on the 2022 General Election.
President Ruto lambasted the Azimio One Kenya Coalition Party Leader on Friday during the Official 2Jiajiri/GIZ Graduation Ceremony in Kasarani for 'glorifying demonstrations' and making irresponsible remarks about the US envoy.
He added that the United States is Kenya's largest export market and that defamatory remarks about the Ambassador were similar to harming the country's economy and a symbol of ungratefulness.
"We cannot in this day and age, it will be a tragedy of monumental proportions if we glorify violent demonstrations, destroy property, and sabotage our economy; we would be very reckless people," he remarked.
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"It would be very ungrateful of us to vilify the people creating opportunities for us; we have a Ksh.200 billion investment from the American government and significant investments from Germany and other countries." We must protect those interests...we must not be petty or focused on personal matters."
In his address to the Devolution Conference on Thursday, Odinga referred to Whitman as a 'rogue' for declaring that the 2022 General Election would be the most credible in the country's history.
In response, the president reiterated that the envoy's comments were based solely on facts.
"In any case, the American Ambassador stated two facts: the last election was the freest and fairest in Kenyan history, and Kenya is open for business, both of which are statements of fact." "Let us maintain some decorum and respect ourselves as we expect others to respect us," Ruto said.
"In the last year, we have created investments with the American government alone, whether it is Moderna, which is going to invest almost Ksh.70 billion, or others in the technology space, which are going to give us almost Ksh.200 billion investments."
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