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The Nairobi Senator, who has severally referred to his close relationship with President Kenyatta stated that he had been instrumental in the political union.
While speaking to Churchill Show, Senator Sakaja noted that he literally crunched the numbers and advised President Kenyatta to select Dr Ruto as his running-mate in 2013.
According to Sakaja, the move to approach Dr Ruto for an alliance with the then newly launched The National Alliance (TNA) party was informed by numerical data.
As an Acturial Scientist, Senator Sakaja claims to have analyzed DP Ruto’s clout and established that he would be the best pick if TNA was to win the presidency at the time.
“We had to bring together TNA and URP… We wanted to win… All these MPs went to Naivasha and I – as always – was doing a presentation on numbers. So I told them, and I hate to be tribal but, according to the numbers, we needed at least 60% of the Rift Valley vote. They laughed. It was unthinkable to work with Ruto!
“I’ve never told anyone this story but when the MPs laughed, I pointed out to them that the number had never changed. We still needed 60%. Numbers don’t lie. I remember that evening President Uhuru, then the deputy Prime Minister called me to his room and asked me to show him the numbers one more time. At that time Eugene Wamalwa was supposed to be the running-mate… but I told him, ‘You need William’,” Sakaja narrated.
Uhuru, Ruto were friends before 2013
The Senator went on to disclose that the political merger was simple since the President and his now deputy were friends prior to the political alliance that won them the presidency.
“No matter who disagrees with me, I can tell you that President Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto were very sincere about creating peace in this country. In fact, at some point, it was no longer about the election for them. It was about bringing together communities that have fought since independence and it was very genuine,” Sakaja stated.
Steering clear of the fall-out between the two since that time, Sakaja stated: “Hii ya baadaye usiniulize (Don’t ask me what happened after that).”
Senator Sakaja confirmed that despite the political differences between them, he is still on speaking terms with DP Ruto.
“I talk to all of them, I believe that politics must never be enmity. If I need to talk to the deputy president today, I’ll make a call and he will talk to me and he also calls me. If I need to talk to the President, I’ll message him and he will call me back (Yeye ni Rais haupigi ovyo ovyo),” the Senator stated.
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