{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Ruto warns Raila over hospital row - Politics | Daily Nation
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Ruto warns Raila over hospital row - Politics
Deputy President William Ruto on Wednesday asked Cord leader Raila Odinga to stop dragging his name into corruption scandals, warning that he was ready to take a political war to the former Prime Minister's doorstep.
He accused Mr Odinga and his former personal assistant, Mr Herbet Ojwang, of linking him to the scandal surrounding a Sh17 billion project to upgrade the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.
The project is under investigations by the Public Investment Committee (PIC) over allegations that the cost had been inflated and that Mr Ruto had used his influence to edge out Mr Ojwang from the deal. According to Mr Ojwang, Mr Ruto had ordered the upgrading of the hospital stopped and had instead directed that a new hospital be built next door at a cost of Sh28 billion.
Yesterday, Mr Ruto said he stopped the rehabilitation contract because it was unprocedurally procured.
He said he had no apologies for ordering the cancellation because the money was enough to build a new hospital.
"Some political saboteur and his personal assistant went to Parliament to tell us how I stopped their project at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MRTH) in Eldoret," said Mr Ruto during the commissioning of the Muthurwa power substation in Nairobi. "I am the one who stopped the project and have no apologies to make because the project was fraudulent, shady and corrupt from the beginning and it has no place under the Jubilee administration."
He accused Mr Odinga and Mr Ojwang of attempting to rip off taxpayers and drag his name in the scandal. "My friend the former Prime Minister and his PA must keep off from me and if they are interested in a political duel, I am ready," Mr Ruto said. "I stopped the project and they will not implement it in this government. How can anybody in their rightful senses want to spend Sh17 billion to renovate and do some extension in a hospital? How can anybody pretend that they want to spend the Sh17 billion without a competitive tendering process?"
He was responding to allegations by Mr Ojwang' who had accused unnamed people in Mr Ruto's office of edging him out of the upgrade tender. Mr Ojwang appeared before PIC said the DP had trashed the upgrade and instead ordered that a new hospital be built on a piece of land allegedly belonging to the Kenya Prisons Service.
He also claimed that Mr Caleb Kositany — who is allied to Mr Ruto — and the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital's chief executive, Dr John Kibosia, had attended meetings in the DP's office and at the offices of China Wu Yi company. According to him, he was edged out of the contract because he was associated with Mr Odinga, who is Mr Ruto's political rival.
But Mr Ruto said the Sh17 billion would have been enough to build a new hospital complete with theaters and all other facilities required in a hospital. He said plans to build the new hospital were unstoppable.
"No amount of intimidation or blackmail will make us change course, I want to tell political saboteurs and their personal assistants and the con men and brokers that they have no space or room to keep masquerading and manipulating their way in our system," he said.
But Mr Odinga while speaking during Citizen TV's Cheche show, said those associating him with the hospital tender were only interested in dragging his name in the mud.
Asked if he ever received any money from Chinese in the deal, he said: "Not at all, not at all."
However, he added that he would not decline money from foreigners should they decide to fund his campaign.
In a tape that Mr Ojwang presented to PIC and which he claimed to have recorded secretly, he said that he had taken a Mr Lieu of the China Wu Yi company to Mr Odinga's office where he gave the former PM Sh5 million.
He also claimed that Mr Lieu helped with Cord's 2013 presidential elections which Mr Odinga lost to Mr Uhuru Kenyatta.
But yesterday, Mr Odinga said: "I have been scandalised and completely embarrassed with these allegations. I have had no dealings with China Wu Yi at all."
He said the allegations were part of the Jubilee Coalition's propaganda to tarnish his image.
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