Nairobi News

President William Ruto has again quoted a wrong Bible verse despite appearing to read

The Head of State made the error while presiding over the police pass-out.

While sharing the story of Paul in the Bible, the President said: “The book of 1st Timothy 1:12 says do not allow anyone to despise your youth.”

The quotation, analysts believe, was a coded message directed at his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua and Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja who have recently been involved in a war of words.

However, the exact verse the President quoted reads: “I thank Christ Jesus for our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service.”

Instead, President Ruto, who frequently visits church, intended to quote 1st Timothy 4:12 which says, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

President Ruto has struggled to quote Bible versus in the past.

During the National Prayer Breakfast meeting at Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi in 2022, Dr Ruto then serving as the country’s Deputy President said: “We are all human beings and the Bible says in Isaiah 1:18 that we have fallen short. So where we have fallen short to all my friends, nawaomba msamaha (I ask for forgiveness).”

This is not factual as Isaiah 1:18 reads: “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

Ruto might have actually been referring to Romans 2:23 which reads, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

Also, in mid-last 2022, the Head of State quoted a non-existent bible verse during an interview with NTV.

Dr Ruto indicated Matthew 17:29 said: “His (Jesus) disciples when they were following him they asked him, we have left our families, we have left the businesses we used to be fishermen, we’ve come to follow you…what is in it for us?”

But as a matter of fact, the Book of Matthew has only 27 verses and not 29 as he suggested.

However, the Head of State might have been referring to Luke 18:28-30 which reads: “We have left all we had to follow you! ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus said to them, ‘no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Also read: Uganda to splash Sh700 million on Museveni’s new cars

Azimio leaders warmly welcome Ruto in Homa Bay

KECOBO boss to Ezekiel Mutua: Stop being a coward! Table evidence of bribery claim