Nairobi Senator Sifuna Forced to Withdraw Ruto’s Remarks at the Senate
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna was on Wednesday afternoon forced to withdraw remarks he had made about President William Ruto.
The Senator had on Tuesday criticised President William Ruto’s 2023 State of the Nation address claiming that large parts of the speech were inaccurate including a remark on WiFi installation across the country.
When he made the remarks, Senate Speaker Amason Kingi ordered the lawmaker to substantiate which was not immediately possible. As such, he was directed to ensure he did so on Wednesday.
However, the Senator was not able to substantiate the remarks which ended in him withdrawing the remarks.
”My idea of substantiation was to prepare affidavits by traders in those markets to demonstrate that in fact, those WiFi hotspots don’t work,”
”Because of the time that it is taking to produce those affidavits, I want to withdraw that remark,” Sifuna submitted.
However the ODM Senator emphasized that had not fully backed down, and in the event, he gathered the necessary evidence he would make the remarks again.
”So that if I have the affidavits ready, I would be ready to make that assertion again,” he added.
The ODM Senator had on Tuesday, November 14 accused the government of failing to fulfill a raft of promises made to Kenyans.
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Besides the WiFi installation promise, the Senator dismissed the government’s argument that it had supplied subsidized fertilizer to Kenyans maintaining that it was a donation from the Russian government.
To that end, Senator Sifuna on Wednesday tabled affidavits referring to a statement by the Russian Embassy on its verified social media platforms to justify his argument.
”You will see a communication on the official handle of the Russian Embassy in Kenya of a donation of 34,000 tons,” the Senator stated.
Sifuna further dismissed the Hustler Fund’s success touted by President Ruto.
”I want to point specifically to page 27 of that report. And I have highlighted the loan portfolio vis a vis the non-performing loans and the bad loans,” Senator Sifuna pointed out.
This comes after another ODM MP Ken Chonga was thrown out of Parliament on Tuesday for what Deputy Speaker Gladys Shollei described as using unparliamentary language.
Chonga had also accused the Kenya Kwanza government of failing to fulfill its promises and poked holes into President William Ruto’s State of the Nation Address.
Nairobi Senator Sifuna Forced to Withdraw Ruto’s Remarks at the Senate