Ruto: I’m ready to record statement on Jacob Juma’s death
By SYLVANIA AMBANIDeputy President William Ruto has for the first time reacted to allegations linking him to the death of Nairobi businessman Jacob Juma who was shot dead by unknown people last month.
While speaking during an interview on Citizen TV on Tuesday night, Mr Ruto said that he is willing to record a statement with the police in regards to the businessman’s mysterious death if asked to.
The deputy president has been widely linked to the death of the businessman who was found dead in his car on the night of May 5.
Before his murder, Mr Juma, appeared to have a premonition of his own death going by the posts on his social media accounts.
ASSASSINATION PLOT
In one of those posts, Mr Juma explicitly claimed that the deputy president was after his lifE.
“The person who is obsessed with plans to kill me is William Ruto. I am aware about it. I know that my assassination was discussed on Tuesday,” read Mr Juma’s message post on his Twitter account on December, 10, 2015.
Then on April 10, this year, he made yet another post on Twitter expressing his hatred for the Mr Ruto. The post read:
I am glad that William Ruto knows that I hate him. If I get Ruto in heaven, I will request God to send me to hell. I have no regrets for it.
— jacob juma (@kabetes) April 10, 2016
These claims were later echoed by former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo during the businessman’s requiem mass on May 12.
Mr Jirongo reportedly stated that the killers of Meshack Yebei, a prospective defense witness at the just concluded trial of the Deputy President at the International Criminal Court, were the same persons who killed Jacob Juma.
“Juma slapped Ruto. That’s is where the problem started and investigations should start there,” Jirongo was quoted as saying by the media.
Mr Ruto would respond to Mr Jirongo’s allegation by issuing a threat for a legal suit against the latter for his remarks.
BROUGHT TO BOOK
During the TV interview on Tuesday night, the deputy president downplayed the claims and further absolved himself from Mr Juma’s death.
“I am sure and hope that the killers of Jacob Juma will be brought to book and they will be known. I want to tell you, the people and the country that I had nothing to do with the life and death of Jacob juma,” he said.
“I will gladly give a statement because I am a law abiding citizen and I want to help in getting to the bottom of the death of Jacob Juma.”
He also said that Mr Jirongo should be summoned and questioned about his remarks.