Nairobi — President William Ruto and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua have accused opposition leader Raila Odinga of plotting to frustrate the government's reform agenda to protect the status quo due to conflict of interest.

Gachagua fired the first salvo saying Odinga was keen on the maintenance of the status quo under President Uhuru Kenyatta who his supported during his second term.

"What we are doing right now is cleaning their mess, and they cannot oversight us to clean their mess because they were part of the mess. Once we clean their mess they can start the oversight on our programs," he said while addressing a church congregation in Kericho on Sunday.

"We want to tell our detractors that we cannot clean the mess, the economic mismanagement of the country within 30 days," he added.

In a follow up to Gachagua's remarks, Ruto urged the opposition party to maintain their composure because they shared responsibility for the country's current state and should allow his administration room to fix the mess.

"I want to tell those we competed with, to keep calm, they destroyed our country. They must give us our time, we fix the country's economy so that we can go forward," he said.

In an apparent refence to Odinga's partnership with President Uhuru Kenyatta during the latter's second term, Ruto said the opposition lacked the moral authority to complain over the poor state of the economy.

"They had five years which they had used to destroy our country. The economy was distorted, we had huge debts, security in the country got destroyed, police turned to be man hunters instead of providing security to the Kenyans," he said.

"That is the history we want to forget and let the competitors not remind us of the many things they did against this country," the President went on to state.

Th response by the government's topmost leaders came after sustained political activities by Odinga who has attended public barazas protesting the high cost of living.