Nairobi, Kenya: NASA says it is ready to take part in presidential debates after agreeing on format with the organisers, at the same time the Opposition has asked Jubilee to take up the challenge and agree to engage on matters corruption and their development agenda.
Below is the statement sent to newsrooms.
Over the last three weeks, the NASA Secretariat has held a number of meetings with the Presidential Debates Commission to agree on the modalities of the debates that the Commission had proposed. At our final meeting last Thursday, NASA and the Commission reached agreement on the principal points about the debate format, including the issues to be discussed, the moderators, the audience and the venue.
But the following morning, the Debate Commission informed us that there had been no response from Jubilee to what would be or not be acceptable to them in terms of the debate format.
Kenyans will hardly be surprised by the refusal of Jubilee to participate in the debates. Their atrocious record while in power makes it impossible to defend themselves. President Kenyatta would have had to explain why the scale of corruption and grabbing are at levels never before seen in Kenya; why corruption has been allowed to proliferate when it is decimating Kenyans’ lives and businesses, putting most basic commodities, including unga, out of reach for most Kenyans. Which is why with a strong 7% growth rate, ordinary Kenyans cannot even make ends meet since the bulk of that growth is being siphoned off by Jubilee’s cartels.
Indeed, President Uhuru Kenyatta had earlier said that “we do not know what the ground rules are and so we will not participate.”
NASA is still ready to take part in the proposed Debates as soon as Jubilee engages in agreeing on the “ground rules” that President Kenyatta used as the excuse to duck the Debates, which Kenyans have come to expect as an essential platform for leaders to communicate their visions directly to them.
Salim Lone, Adviser,
NASA Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga
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