Church, media criticising President Ruto because of his tribe - CS Murkomen

Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen now claims that the ongoing mass criticism against President William Ruto across all sectors is because of his tribe.

Speaking on Thursday after gracing the first joint graduation ceremony of Kericho County Vocational Training Centres, Murkomen slammed the church, media, and government critics accusing them of being tribal in their evaluation of the President’s performance so far.

Terming the current Kenya Kwanza fault-finding by Kenyans as unfair, the CS denounced the attacks directed at the President saying they were not issue-base.

Murkomen took issue with why Ruto is constantly only being compared to Kenya’s second president Daniel arap Moi, who was also from the Kalenjin community, and not other past Heads of State like Jomo Kenyatta, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta who were all Kikuyus.

“I find it unfair that many people especially the church, the media and our critics are criticising President William Ruto not based on facts of the things we are doing but a criticism laced with tribalism,” he stated.

“I find it unfair that President Ruto is not being compared with former President Uhuru Kenyatta or Mwai Kibaki or Jomo Kenyatta because of the disease and mentality of tribalism. Every critic of Ruto is comparing him with Daniel Moi, as if there was one president before him.”

According to the former Elgeyo Marakwet Senator, President Ruto’s detractors are unfavourably weighing him up with the former Heads of State who have already completed their terms, instead of only focusing on the two years he has been in office.

He argued that the late former President Mwai Kibaki, who is acclaimed for turning the Kenyan economy around, also faced the same criticism as Ruto in his first two years.

Murkomen hence stated that, in that same way, President Ruto will with time muffle his critics by revamping the economy.

“It is unfair to find fault the President based on where he comes from or comparing with a President who came from this community before. Let's criticize him on facts as they are; compare Ruto with his predecessor in the first two years or with Kibaki in the first two years,” he said.

“In 2003 or 2004 everybody was crying that President Kibaki amemaliza uchumi, but in 2007, if not for post-election violence, he was being celebrated for turning around the economy.”

The CS added that: “That is why we want to say confidently that we have confidence in President Ruto, if we give him the necessary time and criticize him fairly we are going to get proper results for our country.”