Deputy President William Ruto has dismissed claims by Busia Women Representative Florence Mutua that he was a male chauvinist who had asked the county to vote her out in 2017 because she was a “stranger”.
Ms Mutua had in a statement claimed that the DP made the suggestion on Monday during a meeting with Busia MCAs in his office.
In a statement, Ms Mutua told the Deputy President to steer clear of the Busia politics.
“I am a proud daughter of Western Kenya by birth and I am a resident of Western by marriage. Ruto must not attempt to define my origins for me and he must get out of my personal birth and marital life,” said Ms Mutua in the statement.
But the DP refuted the claims, saying they were based on lies.
“The Deputy President is not a voter in Busia. If Mrs Mutua is confident of re-election wherever she vies, she should not be worried about who meets who,” said Mr David Mugonyi, the communication secretary in the DP’s office.
Mr Mugonyi added: “She (Ms Mutua) was not in the meeting so to purport to claim to know what transpired is engaging in rumour-mongering.”
In the statement, Ms Mutua said that the DP should stop undermining women, saying that it was hard for them to survive in a male-dominated politics as it was already.
‘PERSONAL WARS’
“However, if the DP has problems with me personally, I challenge him to face me directly and stop using MCAs to fight his personal wars,” said Ms Mutua.
Late last month, trade unionist Wilson Sossion had caused a stir after he suggested that National Assembly Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso should vie for governorship in Kisumu where she is married, and not Bomet where she was born.
Dr Laboso dismissed Mr Sossion, calling his sentiments backward and derogatory.
“When the people of Sotik elected me as MP for ten years, they knew full well where I am married. Marriage is a personal choice and for someone of Sossion’s caliber to suggest it, is really sad,” Dr Laboso told the Nairobi News.
In the statement, Ms Mutua said the DP was fueling such sentiments.
“DP Ruto should bear in mind that even in his side of the coalition married women who contested and will contest in their places of birth are facing it rough. We expect him to give them support, not undermine them through reckless declarations driven by male chauvinism,” she said.
-nairobinews.nation.co.ke
