Presidential debate: Recriminations for a missed single golden opportunity

Raila Odinga responds to a question during the 2017 presidential debate. Photo: Boniface Okendo

There are few things as frustrating as remembering a clever remark, something witty or nasty that you should have said to an opponent in an argument when it is over and your nose is still smarting from having been rubbed in grime.

Post-debate statements by President Uhuru Kenyatta to the effect that he did not need the debate since his development record speaks for itself betrayed a man whose conscience was troubling. Was it necessary to even explain himself after having disdainfully trashed a live debate, which he could have used to settle deeper into the saddle? That Kenyatta, a better orator than Raila if you ask me, could get petrified by the likelihood of being made to feel hot around the ears by an awkward question, was interesting.