NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 22 — Roots Party presidential flagbearer George Wajackoyah has threatened to boycott the Presidential Debate slated for Tuesday unless organizers agree to put him on the same platform with Azimio’s Raila Odinga and Kenya Kwanza’s William Ruto.
Wajackoya faulted the polls based upon which his popularity was gauged terming the surveys as misleading.
“Our decision is informed by the fact that the polls used as a determinant to pair the presidential candidates are not factual because they are conducted by the pollsters with interests in some of the political parties participating in the presidential debate,” he said in a statement Thursday.
He added that there is still time to “conduct credible polls that will show the true picture on the ground” before July 26 when the debate to held at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Karen, Nairobi.
“We look forward to our candidate attending the debate once our concerns are well addressed and our candidate matched in the right platform for the debate,” he said.
On Thursday, Presidential Debate Secretariat announced that Citizen TV’s Yvonne Okwara and Eric Latiff of Spice FM and KTN News as moderators of the presidential debate between Ruto and Odinga.
The debate between Raila and Ruto will be preceded by another debate featuring candidates who have polled less than 5 percent in the three recent opinion polls.
Those who polled less than 5 per cent including Wajackoya and David Mwaure of Agano Party. Their debate will be moderated by Smirti Vidyarthi of NTV and Ken Mijungu of KTN News.
The Secretariat explained that the moderators were carefully selected to ensure a balanced debate.
“The moderators have been selected based on a rigorous criterion that abides to among other things the principles of impartiality, fairness and objectivity, a strong understanding of the Kenyan political landscape and the major issues with this election,” the statement read.
The Secretariat also reported that panel discussions for both debates will be moderated by Joe Ageyo of NTV.
The moderators were unveiled even as Deputy President William Ruto’s communication team said his attendance for presidential will be pegged on a raft of conditions including allocation of sufficient time on salient issues facing Kenyans.
“His appearance is pegged on the condition that the moderators will allocate equal time to issues that are affecting Kenyans. We have made a formal request to the presidential debate secretariat to make public the time allocations,” the campaigns Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed said.
Ruto’s presidential campaign secretariat confirmed that indeed he will attend the debate for a face-off with his main competitor Odinga.
