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Uhuruto hard line stance on presidential ballots tender


President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto have said the Jubilee Party will not be involved in any further talks with the electoral body over the award of the presidential ballot papers tender.

The two stated that Jubilee Party would no longer sit in any tender committee to decide who prints ballot papers for the August 8 presidential election.

While campaigning in Narok County on Tuesday, the president and his deputy said the party would not engage in any deliberations with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) over the stalemate on the tender.

“We leave IEBC to determine who to give the tender. We want to state categorically that we will no longer engage the IEBC but will wait to meet our competitors at the ballot where we will show them dust,” the deputy president said.

The IEBC has been locked in a stalemate after the High Court last week made a judgement directing the electoral body to make fresh tendering of the presidential ballot papers.

Speaking at OlMekenyu in Narok County, the DP said the role of choosing who prints ballot papers belongs strictly to the commission.

Mr Ruto claimed powerful cartels funding the opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) were arm-twisting the IEBC to give them the presidential ballot papers printing tender.

“We know those entrepreneurs funding NASA and who wrote their manifesto and now want the tender but for us all we want is an election. We don’t mind how the IEBC will print the ballot papers,” he said.

“We will not sit in any meeting on tenders because we do not have a printing press of our own or tenderprenueurs,” said the DP.

The DP said the many cases that the opposition has lined up in the courts are designed to deny Kenyans their fundamental rights to vote as provided for in the Constitution.

The two leaders warned the IEBC against being drawn into what they termed as a conspiracy to deny Kenyans their right to vote, stating that all that Jubilee wants is Kenyans going to the polls on August 8.

President Kenyatta accused the opposition of using courts to try and have the August 8 General Election postponed.

“Hawa jamaa wameweka misururu ya kesi  mahakamani wakiwa na nia kwamba uchaguzi uaairishwe (These people have taken numerous  cases to court with the  intention  to have the August 8 polls postponed),” said the president.

“Kenyans are ready for the polls and nothing including the many cases will stop the elections,” the head of state stated.

The president urged the courts to avoid being misused by the opposition to scuttle the election process.

The president and his deputy took their his re-election campaign back to Narok County as the hunt for the Maasai votes between the government and the opposition intensified ahead of the General Election now four weeks away.