Deputy President William Ruto should stop blaming the handshake for derailing the Jubilee administration’s development agenda ahead of the 2022 general elections.

Orange Democratic Movement [ODM] party leader Raila Odinga defended his handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta saying they meant well for the country ahead of the polls.

He urged Ruto to get his facts right before blaming the handshake which brought on board the Building Bridges Initiative [BBI] to amend the 2010 constitution.

“I am not responsible for the failure of the ruling party to deliver to the electorate ahead of next year’s polls,” he said.

Raila told Ruto he is not in the government despite the inception of the handshake three years ago.

He spoke when he met Muslim scholars from the coast region during a forum to drum up support for the initiative at the Wild Water Centre in Nyali constituency in Mombasa county.

The former Prime Minister reminded the forum they had lengthy discussions with the Head of State to put a permanent stop to perennial chaos after every five years of elections.

Raila said the bottom line of the initiative is to end post election skirmishes which the country faces every time of the polls.

“I have buried the political hatchet with President Kenyatta and we have resolved to forget the past and forge ahead,” he pointed out.

The ODM party leader acknowledged ethnicity is the disease of the elite which came in after the country attained independence from the colonial government.

Raila urged the electorate to unite to fight the way they fought with the colonialists for the country’s independence 58 years ago.

He reiterated the BBI is intended to amend the 2010 constitution and take the country in a journey down a memory lane.

On his part, the host, Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council (KEMNAC) chairperson Sheikh Juma Ngao, said he has no regrets in supporting the BBI to amend the 2010 constitution.