![Ruto said the need to let Uhuru take charge of the government’s anti-coronavirus agenda prompted his absence during the president's addresses. [PHOTO | FILE]](https://i0.wp.com/www.k24tv.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/WILLIAM-RUTO-1.jpg?resize=730%2C414&ssl=1)
Deputy President William Ruto now says his confinement to the periphery of Government functions during the coronavirus crisis has left his political enemies with no “usual scapegoat” to blame over the irregular procurement of PPEs by State agencies.
The deputy president said on Twitter Thursday evening (August 20) that he accepts being referred to as a “spectator” in Government, so long as his reputation remains unsoiled.
Ruto was reacting to Standard newspaper’s Thursday lead story, which termed him a “spectator in Government”, who -- for long -- had “dismissed reports that he was a stranger in government”.
“[Despite denying the open truth that he is a spectator in Government], Deputy President William Ruto generously shares his frustrations on social media and at tea parties at his residence,” reads the splash story’s standfirst.
The newspaper story was anchored on the DP’s recent remarks, in which he accused police of being used by high-raking government officials to “bully citizens and intimidate leaders”. Ruto made the remarks Tuesday after the Monday arrests of three senators ahead of the counties’ revenue sharing formula debate.
“At least, for once it won’t be possible to be blamed for what someone said: ‘started in Wuhan as a virus, landed in Italy as a pandemic and now in Kenya as a multi-billion-shilling corruption enterprise’. Wacha niendelee kama spectator (Let me continue being a spectator in Government). It is alright,” said the DP on his Twitter page.
The DP’s remarks come on the back of allegations that billions of shillings have been lost after KEMSA irregularly awarded PPE supply tenders to undeserving companies.
