Ruto Fires At Raila's Visit To Shakahola

President William Ruto on Sunday, May 14 poked holes at Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga's visit to the Shakahola mass gravesite despite being blocked by police on the basis of being a security operation zone.

Addressing the media during a joint interview at State House, Nairobi, the Head of State noted that the former Prime Minister had no business going to the 800-acre piece of land which was labelled as a crime scene.

He added that only experts that include detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) were the only ones allowed to access the mass grave site.

Azimio Leader Raila Odinga and Malindi MP Amina Mnyazi when they arrived at the Shakahola Command Centre in Kilifi County. /DAILY NATION

"Going there as an opposition leader, what does it help with? Raila is neither a doctor nor a police officer nor did he go to assist in the exhumation of the bodies. What was he doing there?

"The police said the site as of now is a crime scene. The only people who are needed at the site are the experts who will help in the exercise," he stated.

On why he is yet to visit the site since the news of Shakahola broke out nationwide, Ruto noted that he was awaiting the experts deployed to conclude their work there before going to visit in person.

"Once the experts in the field have finished their work as professionals, we will go, I have sent everyone there to look at things, exercise it's done I will go to Malindi," he said.

Ruto argued that the decision to bar Raila from entering the site was in line with regulations, adding that he himself could not even enter Shakahola until the whole operation was concluded.

"We like politicising everything, I can't step in Shakahola unless the whole operation is done.

"What the multiagency task force did by denying Raila Odinga entry is in line," he added.

He nonetheless accepted responsibility as the President for letting the incident happen in the first place and asked Kenyans for forgiveness in advance.

"I am asking for forgiveness from the people of Kenya following the Shakahola incident. There was laxity in our Government that unfortunately resulted in the death of many Kenyans. 

"I am taking responsibility that as President this (Shakahola massacre) should not have happened. This kind of thing should have never happened. The promise that I am giving to Kenyans is that we will get to the bottom of this matter," he added.

Raila on Friday, May 5 argued that the Shakahola massacre was a global headline event and poured cold water on journalists and human rights activists being barred from visiting the 800-acre piece of land in Kilifi County.

"Why did the government ban the media and human rights from the ground? I don't need anyone's permission to get there and I had even made my visit public," Raila protested, adding that the purpose of his visit was to condole with Kenyans who had lost relatives there.

As of Sunday, May 14, nine more survivors were rescued from Shakahola, bringing the total to 81. Among them are five children whose health condition is good but were kept under monitoring by doctors at the Malindi Hospital.

Officials said four were adults; one man and three women. The health condition of three of the adults was not good and were taken for treatment at the same facility.

Similarly, one person was arrested, bringing the number of people detained to 27. The death toll currently stands at 201 and the persons missing are 610 as the exhumation exercise is set to resume on Tuesday, having been suspended on Saturday.