Ruto says Kibaki was Kenya’s best president, ever

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 29 – Deputy President William Ruto has described Mwai Kibaki as the best President Kenya ever had.

Speaking at Nyayo Stadium during Kibaki’s funeral service on Friday, Ruto said the former president who died last week was also a distinguished public servant both in the opposition and government. 

“I also can see his shadow and influence in what is going to become of the 5th President of Kenya. Because I see the conversation around the economy which president Mwai Kibaki was its architect influencing the coming election. We might need a separate book for Mwai Kibaki because of what he has done for our country,” the DP stated.

He described Kibaki as a true measure of a man who laid a firm foundation for the architectural transformation of the country.

“When the history of Kenya is written, Mwai Kibaki won’t fit into paragraphs or into chapters, I think we might need a separate book for what he has done for our country,” said Ruto.

The second in command further lauded his boss Uhuru Kenyatta, saying that he had built the foundation of the country under Kibaki’s legacy.

“We are gathered here to mourn the departure of a great man of our soil, the third president our country. President Kenyatta has been a good student of Kibaki,” Ruto noted.

The 2022 President hopeful seemingly propelled his presidential bid under the bottom-up economic model saying the incoming president should embrace Kibaki’s economic stewardship.

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“Kibaki was a solid economist. I see his shadow in the 5th President because the conversation is about the economy,” said Ruto.

This is even as he lauded the Jubilee administration for ensuring a proper and respectful send-off for two heads of state who have died during their regime.

The second president of the Republic of Kenya Daniel Arap Moi died in February 2020.

“We have paid farewell to the second president in 2019 and to our third president now, it’s a solemn moment, it’s a heavy moment, but I take pride in what we have built over time, in respecting our leaders in office and respecting them in retirement and even death,” Ruto noted.

The funeral service was attended by thousands, with more than 20 top dignitaries among them President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, Ethiopia’s Sahle-Work Zewde and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa.

Kibaki who served Kenya as the third president from 2002 to 2012 died aged 90.

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