Hiiraan Online

Eldoret North MP William Ruto said her efforts were dictatorial and told her to keep off Kenyan politics.

On Sunday Citizen TV reported that Mrs Clinton had, during meetings with President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, expressed reservations about International Criminal Court (ICC) suspects vying for the presidency.

The report said the US was concerned the suspects may be planning to use the presidency to frustrate the ICC and warned of sanctions if any of them was elected.

On Monday, Mr Ruto, the United Republican Party leader, said during a campaign tour of Kirinyaga county that the US should keep off local politics.

“The US Secretary of State has told the government that Mr Kenyatta and I are not supposed to run. She has also hinted that America will impose sanctions on us if we participate in the polls and win. This is dictatorship,” he said.

Speaking at Kutus and Ngurubani towns in Mwea Division, Mr Ruto told Mrs Clinton to stop dictating to Kenyans how they should conduct their elections as doing so demonstrated supreme arrogance.

He said Kenya was a sovereign state and Kenyans were competent enough to elect their leaders without being told what to do.

Mr Ruto also accused Mrs Clinton of trying to manipulate the outcome of their cases in the High Court and the ICC through her comments.

“When she visited Chief Justice Willy Mutunga at the Supreme Court and commented on the ICC cases involving us, she was clearly interfering,” Mr Ruto said reiterating that he and Mr Kenyatta were innocent and had been framed by their political enemies.

“We did not finance any chaos or beat anybody in the 2007 polls. We were framed by those who felt we were a force to reckon with,” he said.

The URP leader promised to eradicate poverty by giving farmers subsidised fertiliser if elected.

Mr Ruto also said he would ensure equitable distribution of resources as some areas were marginalised while others were endowed with many resources.

He called on Kenyans to reject leaders with a poor development record in the March 4 polls.

Mr Ruto’s sentiments were echoed by MPs Joshua Kutuny (Cherangany), Elijah Lagat (Emgwen), Francis Chachu (North Horr), Kazungu Kambi (Kaloleni) and Benjamin Langat (Kipkelion) who accompanied him.

The MPs reminded Mrs Clinton that Kenyans fought for their freedom and should not be lectured to.

“The US Secretary of State knows very well how we struggled for our independence yet she is lecturing us on how we should go about elections. She must stop this,” Mr Kambi said.

Mwea parliamentary aspirant Winnie Karimi, who was in Mr Ruto’s entourage, said she was confident the G7 Alliance would make it to State House.