Deputy President William Ruto abruptly lost his signal while delivering a speech during the COVID-19 virtual conference held on Monday, August 31.
The DP was forced to cut short his speech before he could conclude his remarks and invite President Uhuru Kenyatta to close the conference.
Ruto’ screen suddenly went blank about five minutes after he started speaking, prompting the moderator Waihiga Mwaura, a journalist, to invite Council of Governors chairperson Wycliffe Oparanya to give his closing remarks before inviting the head of state.
In his brief comments, the second in command had thanked Uhuru for making a coordinated effort in the management of the pandemic.
“I want to start by thanking the president for his steadfast leadership in mobilising both state and non state actors in responding to this pandemic. This coordinate effort has produced results that now we are talking about flattening the curve.
“Your excellency, some very difficult decisions have had to be made. But it is fair to say that Kenyans in their majority have responded to the government decisions and complied with the safety measures that have been put in place,” said Ruto.
The DP also touched on one of the Jubilee government’s Big Four Agenda, the universal health coverage (UHC) saying the pandemic had provided a lesson for management of emergencies going forward.
The COVID-19 conference was one of the few to be attended by Ruto after he was reportedly sidelined in the running of government affairs.
Ruto recently addressed his strained relationship with the president noting he had agreed to take a back seat during Jubilee’s second term in office.
According to the deputy president, it was Uhuru who decided to do things differently in their second term in office as opposed to how they ran affairs together in their first term.
“The situation between the president and myself is an agreed position. In our first term, it was Uhuruto and the second term, the president decided to do things differently,” he said.
