Somalia security issue is top of my agenda: Ruto

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenya’s president-elect Dr. William Ruto has announced that once he is sworn into office next week –Tuesday he will call Somalia’s newly-elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Speaking to CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday, Dr. Ruto did reveal that it’s time to resolve the decade’s security issues and now a looming famine.

Dr. Ruto "The issue in Somalia is not and will not be a huge task for my administration, once I am in the office I will have a lengthy discussion with President Mohamud to draw up a plan to end the insecurity.

I am also looking forward to working with him and with the international community so that we can straighten out the challenges in Somalia, and make it possible for Somalia to take care of its own security concerns."

He also said that he will work to unify the country that is divided right in the middle following his narrow election victory.

However, his huge task will be reviving an economy that is gradually growing post-COVID-19 era.

"The administration that I'm going to run is going to be an administration that is going to serve all Kenyans equally, whether they voted for us or they did not." Comments Ruto.

Dr. Ruto’s victory was confirmed by a Supreme Court ruling earlier this week.

The 55 years old had won with 50.49% of the vote against Odinga's 48.85% in August’s election, which passed off calmly despite Kenya's recent history of political violence, including the killing of nearly 1,500 people in the aftermath of the December 2007 election.

When asked about the peaceful proceedings, Ruto said that the political maturity in Kenya has been improving since 2007, and the 2027 election will be even better.

"I think it speaks to the heart of the maturity of the democracy of our country," he said. "No citizen, no leader wants their country to be famous for violence. We can go to an election, we can decide who our leaders are and the next day we can go back to work," he added. "That is the standard we have raised for ourselves as the people of Kenya, I am very proud of our country."

Amanpour later asked whether outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, who supported Odinga's election bid despite Ruto being his vice-president, had been in touch since the election.

Dr. Ruto alluded that " President Kenyatta, unfortunately, has not seen it fit to congratulate me. Maybe he's a bit disillusioned or maybe he's unhappy that I defeated his candidate, but that is the nature of politics."

Among those who have contacted Ruto are a number of world leaders, and he says he told them not to expect "a big shift" in Kenya's foreign policy.
"I intend to scale up the participation of Kenya in many of the areas, especially in our regional peace initiatives. I will be available, I will play my part, I will scale up Kenya's standing and contribution in that space so that together we can contribute to a better, much more peaceful neighborhood," said Ruto.

Humanitarian issues are also on the agenda, and Ruto told Amanpour that he will work for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine in order to allow more grain shipments from the country to reach East Africa.

Ruto plans to boost grain production locally and regionally, he said, while refusing to point the finger at Moscow over the shortages.
"I do not think blame game would help in that equation," he said.

Amanpour also pressed Ruto on his controversial promise to deport Chinese people from Kenya, but the President-elect argued that he had been taken out of context.

He was referring to Chinese people who work without a permit, said Ruto. "Everybody will do business; everybody will do whatever they want to do so long as they are doing it within the law. Anybody that operates outside the law, it doesn't matter where they come from, they will be sent back from where they came from," he said.

GAROWE ONLINE