President Ruto Warns Western Leaders
President William Ruto on Wednesday morning received a standing ovation from South African legislatures during his address at the Pan-African Parliament Summit on Climate Policy and Equity, in South Africa.
Dr Ruto lamented the manner in which African head of states are being disrespected at some point and wondered why Western nations would invite African leaders to their countries in order to discuss the continent’s problems.
“Why would you call 50 African heads only to give them one minute as part of the engagement?, sometime we are arranged on the flow to take photographs only. If you cannot respect our leaders then that is a sign of lack of goodwill. If we have a smaller group of ten or five people then we can have a meaningful conversation, and we can have a meeting of equals. Said Ruto amidst cheers from the delegates
Ruto revealed that he was among leaders who have been invited to Russia-Africa Head of state and government summit later this year in Moscow, But said he has written to President Vladimir Putin that he will only attend if they will be accorded maximum respect.
‘Any serious country that wants to engage with Africa, must first respect our architecture. Anybody who wants us to take them seriously! If they want fruitful engagement they should engage our continent in a manner that we can effectively represent our people and articulate our issues’’ said Ruto
Ruto who is on a two day state visit to South Africa claimed the humiliations had a huge impact on Africa, leading to widespread instability to implement serious policies without the intervention of the Western powers.
“The most unfortunate thing is that some of the people who normally invite us for these meetings do tell us that there will be consequences should we fail to turn up.They have been inviting us to meetings that have no meaningful outcomes because of blackmail. It is not right,” added Ruto
During The Mo Ibrahim Governance meeting at the KICC, President William Ruto complained about the mistreatment of African presidents during foreign state visits.
On September 20, 2022 President Ruto and other African leaders were bundled in a bus to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s state burial in the UK, something that has since irked Mr Ruto
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