DP Ruto blocked from travelling to Uganda

DP Ruto blocked from travelling to Uganda

Deputy President  William Ruto was on Monday blocked from travelling to Uganda.

The DP’s office says Ruto was scheduled to make a private visit to Uganda but was told to first seek clearance from the Head of public Service.

Three members of parliament who accompanied the DP were also blocked temporarily before being allowed to travel.

The deputy president is said to have arrived at airport, all set for what would have been his second trip to Uganda in less than a month, but he could not be cleared for take off, his spokesman David Mugonyi saying in a brief statement.

“He was told that he had to first seek clearance from the head of public service, when he called Joseph Kinyua, he said he wasn’t aware of such a directive,”’

Ruto is said to have been kept waiting at the Wilson airport from 2pm to 5;15 pm when his journey aborted.

He later returned to his Karen office.

But sources in government who did not want to be named owing to the political sensitives of the matter pointed to the travel protocols the require public officials such as the deputy president to be cleared before leaving the country.

Under the national security council procedure on travel by top public servants, the Deputy President’s foreign trips must be cleared by the president.

CS’s and PS’s are however cleared by Head of Public Service.

Ruto was to travel with three MPs allied to him Kiharu’s Ndindi Nyoro, Kapseret’s Oscar Sudi and Kinango MP Benjamin Tayari.

The three lawmakers were also reportedly kept waiting at Wilson Airport for more than three hours and later cleared leaving the DP behind.

Sisi tuko hapa Kampala tumefika tulikuwa tukuje na DP kutembelea Yoweri Museveni, tulifika airport saa saba tukingojea DP alipofika alianza kuambiwa kuna orders from above hawezi ruhusiwa kutoka nje ya nchi,” Ndindi Nyoro said.

It was not immediately clear what was on the DP’s agenda in Uganda…but his last trip in early July raised political eyebrows in the region with a section of newspapers reporting that he had sought the intervention of president Yoweri Museveni in mending fences with President Kenyatta.

He is also said to have discussed business opportunities in the neighbouring country.

A report in the Sunday Nation even suggested that Museveni had expressed concern over what he saw as the DP’s confrontational approach in dealing with President Kenyatta, which he feared could cost him politically.

The DP has since put out a social media post which seems to refer to the latest incident.

At 6.46 pm on Monday, he wrote on Twitter handle ‘isorait…tuwachie mungu’.

One more sign of the strained relations between the DP and sections of the same government he is still constitutionally part of.

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D.P William Ruto

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