Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has hit back at opposition leaders criticising various government policies, including the implementation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
This comes after former president Uhuru Kenyatta faulted the current regime for overhauling some of the initial programmes his administration had initiated, among them the Linda Mama programme.
Kindiki defended the Kenya Kwanza administration for scrapping the Linda Mama programme that exclusively catered for maternal expenses for expectant women.
Speaking during an Economic Empowerment Engagement in Wajir and Garissa counties, Kindiki said the introduction of the Social Health Authority (SHA) is all-inclusive for maternal and other critical medication that were not captured in the defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
“If you just provide for mothers and their children, you leave out all the others, which doesn’t sort out the issue,” he said.
He termed the remarks made by the retired president on Friday as reckless and instead should have appreciated that the former regimes had not done enough in implementing some key policies to cover all the Kenyans.
Meanwhile, the Deputy President noted that the Kenya Kwanza government has injected over Ksh14 billion in Wajir County in Affordable housing, Fresh Produce Modern Markets and Hostels, saying that the region will not be sidelined as far as development is concerned.
Statesman
Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku, speaking during an education and public engagement forum in Mbeere North, Embu County, accused Kenyatta of inciting Kenyans.
He noted that while the former Head of State is constitutionally permitted to express his views and offer advice to the sitting President, he should refrain from engaging in active or partisan politics.
“What the former President is doing is not just offering advice, it’s engaging in opposition politics and inciting Kenyans against a legitimately elected government,” Ruku stated.
The CS acknowledged the former President’s decade of service to the nation but urged him to emulate his predecessors, the late Daniel Arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, by acting as a statesman and showing respect for those currently in office.
