Ruto takes pride in UDA and bottom up model

Deputy President William Ruto Tuesday paid glowing tribute to leaders and Kenyans for their immense contribution to the growth of the new party, the United Democratic Alliance.

Addressing the party’s National Delegates Conference at Kasarani moments after endorsement as the UDA Presidential candidate, Ruto outlined his vision for the country and how his bottom-up economic model was the ultimate solution to a sustainable united Kenya.

The DP in an emotional acceptance speech went on to narrate how his exclusion from the government in the last four years had changed his leadership perspective, opening his eyes to the sufferings of the weakest and vulnerable whose voices had been ignored.

“ From My eventual retreat to the margins of a government  I had the opportunity to participate in building, I have learned that the biggest mistake a political party can make is to fail the inclusion test. I have learned that leadership works when we listen more and speak less and this is what I have done over the four years engaging Kenyans in their farms, markets and workplaces, ” he said.

“I learned that our flashy comfortable secure offices are inaccessible to the majority of the people who need them the most, it cost us the opportunity to be useful and effective” he added as he condemned the contemptuous exclusion of majority Kenyans.

He said UDA which has grown in leaps and bounds over the past year was proof that Kenyans need the much-desired change that will guarantee them the opportunity to hustle and to create jobs for millions whose dignity has been taken away by poverty, debt and the high cost of living.

“I want to thank all who have made this party become the party of the hustler nation in Kenya. This is a party for people from all walks of life…. If we take care of the bottom, we take care of everybody. The top therefore must be understood to be everyone’s aspiration and ideal destination; it is not bottom versus up, but it is bottom-up”, he announced amid applause from the crowd.

Ruto pledged to go all the way to the finish line and deliver the much-awaited win.

“I am ready. I am determined to give you a campaign you will be proud of and to win for our party, coalition and the people of Kenya. We are prepared to do all we can, work with everyone to open the doors of inclusion, opportunity and enterprise” he told the NDC.

The DP once again launched a sustained attack on the government, citing governance failures including a handshake that held Kenyans hostage, through the weaponisation of state institutions.

“Our competitors are the masters of monopoly, the agents of conflict of interest, and the agents of state capture; we must free our country.. development can only be sustainable if programs are designed on the people’s terms.”

Pointing out that power is transient, Ruto said his trust and confidence is in God and that he will not submit to threats and blackmail.

‘You may have power but we believe and submit to an all-powerful God’ he declared after which he thanked delegates for bestowing upon him the responsibility to be their Presidential candidate in the forthcoming election.

“Today is a historic moment for UDA because we are not where we were a year ago; we are now the largest party in the Republic of Kenya. I am profoundly humbled and immeasurably honoured, he concluded.