Why presidential debates are crucial to voters ahead of polls

Absent of a change of heart by the two main contenders for the Presidency there will be no serious Presidential debate this year. For many of us exhausted by the tiring predictability of this year’s campaigns, this was promising to be one bright spark away from the usual sound bites, ululations and weird uncoordinated dances that have now become the staple of campaigns. A debate between the primary protagonists in an election, though it may hardly change voter choices, is important for several reasons. Most importantly, it emphasizes the principle that the people seeking elective posts are servants seeking employment from the voter. A debate is an avenue through which they subject themselves to suitability interviews. Though this servant-hood business may look like a myth, we must believe that over time the idea will sink home and define how leaders relate to the voter.

The nature of Kenya’s current campaigns is that people seeking elective office just talk down at the voter. They attend rallies and repeat tag and attack lines never subjected to interrogation, much unlike a debate. A debate, on the contrary, forces candidates to polish their agendas since they are aware that unrefined aspects of their manifestos will be placed under scrutiny.

Gender gap

Reading the manifestos released a week or so ago, it is clear that many of these documents did not undergo any intense examination. When a manifesto says the solution to the severe gender gap is changing the Constitution, you realise the drafters did not give this convoluted issue much thought since they did not expect anyone to cross-examine this proposal with all its obvious deficiencies.

One of the other inevitable consequences of a debate is that it demystifies power; it affirm power’s fallibility and humanness as it struggles through the issues that debates inevitably raise. Who can ever forget President Kenyatta’s genuinely grim face in response to the ICC question; that it was a personal challenge he would face much like what other Kenyans faced every day. That answer humanised him more than any podium platform would have done.

Finally, for a country like Kenya where we define electoral contests as life and death issues, it is important to put our principal protagonists in one space and have them discuss their solutions for the whole country in an amiable manner. It tends to confirm to us that the stakes are not that high; Kenya does not have to burn if either of the two candidates loses. In my view these debates are the absolute minimum discussion fora that candidates should be subjected to.

Rules of engagement

We must find a way to enhance concepts like the town hall, village hall in our case, so that voters get a chance to interrogate the viability of numerous ideas that are so carelessly thrown around by various candidates. While I totally believe in the value of candidate debates, I am also sympathetic to the candidates when they allege that they have not been consulted on the format and other critical aspects including timing of the Monday debate. In the USA which is the birthplace of Presidential debates, the process is managed very transparently through a non-profit organisation known as the Commission on Presidential debates.

The rules of engagement are clear, the timings are negotiated with the candidates, and the Commission does everything possible to ensure that the debates are not just fair to all candidates but are seen by the candidates to be so. They questions and the format are structured in manner that seeks to reap maximum value for the listener as opposed to theatre, the kind we saw in Nairobi’s gubernatorial debate. Going forward there are lessons we must learn from the Americans and others who routinely pursue these processes. Finally, from a political perspective, while debates may not shift voters, they do enhance the enthusiasm quotient of one’s committed voters. In an election where victory will depend on who gets out their core supporters on election day, a debate is small price to pay, and a welcome bonus for an increasingly fatigued voter.

- The writer is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya. [email protected]