Deputy President William Ruto was on Monday left with egg on his face after he was abruptly stopped from flying to Uganda.
The DP was scheduled to fly to Entebbe accompanied by a seven-man entourage comprising of his close political allies such as Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi, and businessmen David Lagat, Harun Aydin, David Muge, Simon Mogun and Nelson Kisalit.
A flight manifest from Phoenix Aviation shows they were to use a private jet; a Cessna 560XL, on flight number Jadestar 12.
The plane, reg 5Y WHB, had already been prepared for the flight but its crew was told at the last minute that Ruto would not be flying.
“We are surprised the Deputy President was denied clearance to go on a planned private visit to Uganda. It is our officers who always handle his travel and this time, they were told, that he must get clearance from Immigration to fly out. In all his travels, all these years, this has not happened,” the DP’s office said through his communication secretary David Mugonyi.
The outspoken Oscar Sudi also took to social media to claim that they were kept waiting at Wilson Airport for five hours.
“We were held for more than 5 hours at Wilson Airport together with the Deputy President William Ruto. Our flight was scheduled for midday but the so-called Deep State failed to clear the DP.
“Speaker JB Muturi cleared us together with my colleague Ndindi Nyoro since our flight was private. We had to wait longer than we expected until the DP became impatient and left the airport for home. We were told Uhuru Kenyatta himself declined to clear his Deputy. I have always been telling you that we are officially back to the dark days of KANU and KADU. The so-called Deep State wanatufinya hatupumui. But I ask Kenyans to be patient because liberation is coming soon. Hawa washenzi wametuzoea vibaya,” Sudi wrote.
On his part, DP William Ruto took to Twitter to write: “It’s all right…we leave it all to God.”
It is this tweet that prompted a section of Kenyans on Twitter to mock the DP. Below are some screengrabs of the reactions.
Isorait….tumwachie MUNGU
— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) August 2, 2021