President-elect William Ruto on Wednesday told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that his predecessor President Uhuru Kenyatta has not congratulated him on his election victory.
Ruto said the president was either disillusioned or disappointed that he had defeated his candidate and said he will work to unify the country following his slim election victory amongst other issues of importance to the region.
During the exclusive interview, the President Elect said he had already reached out to his election rival Raila Odinga, and promised to build alliances that will help to bring the country together. “The administration that I’m going to run will serve all Kenyans equally, whether they voted for us or they did not,” said Ruto.
Ruto beat Odinga with 50.49% to 48.85% in the August 9th elections which went on smoothly despite Kenya’s past history of political violence in the year 2007 that saw the killing of nearly 1,500 people and displacement of more than half a million Kenyans.
On the issue of human rights and his previous comments that there was “no room” for homosexuality in Kenyan society, Ruto said he does not think that LGBTQ rights are an important topic for Kenyans. “I am very clear that we respect everybody and what they believe in, but we also have what we believe in and we expect to be respected for what we believe in,” he added.
“We do not want to create a mountain out of a molehill,” he said, adding that he prefers to focus his efforts on unemployment and hunger. “When it becomes a big issue for the people of Kenya, the people of Kenya will make a choice.”
