ODM deputy party leader Wycliffe Oparanya has asked President William Ruto and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to desist from making remarks that may divide Kenyans.

He said it was a matter of concern that Ruto and Gachagua had engaged in words and actions that may cause discord so soon after they were sworn into office.

In a statement, Mr Oparanya said it was disturbing that the president was forgetting that he is a symbol of national unity and is supposed to serve all Kenyans equally whether they voted for him or not.

“We have persistently seen an extension of hostilities directed at former President Uhuru Kenyatta and unhealthy reversals of key policy issues that perhaps the principal of collective responsibility would have been left to thrive,” said Oparanya.

The former Kakamega governor asked the president to allow his predecessor to enjoy his retirement in peace instead of directing his arsenal at him to portray him as a failed Head of State, yet they ran the government and made policies together.

Oparanya said the current regime had put up a spirited fight to either kill or weaken state institutions, saying the more worrying being the ways courts and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution were being influenced to drop graft cases involving key members of the Kenya Kwanza government.

He said the Ruto administration was setting a worrying trend where the rule of law was compromised by weak legal system and the office of the DPP that dances to the tune of the government and not exercising its core mandate of ensuring that Kenyans get justice.

“Curiously, though, one notices that there is little talk about the bottom-up lifting of the masses or greatly suppressed economy but unending attacks on the past administration even in situations where you expect the president to elevate his patriotism and protect the image of his predecessor. All these indicators point to the fact that we have an administration bent on practising bad divisive politics at the expense of all the promises made,” said Oparanya.

He said Azimio La Umoja supporters were yet to come to terms with the outcome of the elections and that they had not recovered from the way the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission outgoing chairman Wafula Chebukati conducted the elections, especially the critical moment of announcing the winner of the presidential race at the Bomas of Kenya.

Oparanya said the president was worsening the situation by making grave allegations of plans by his then competitors to abduct Chebukati and force announcement of the presidential results in favour of Azimio La Umoja presidential candidate Raila Odinga.

“We question why Wafula Chebukati did not bother to record a statement with the police if his life was in danger. The timing of the allegation is wrong,” said the former Kakamega governor.