DP William Ruto confirms he'll attend presidential debate

DP William Ruto at the launch of Kenya Kwanza's manifesto at Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi on June 30, 2022. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Deputy President William Ruto has confirmed that he will attend the presidential debate scheduled for July 26 at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in Nairobi.

Ruto’s communications aide, Hussein Mohamed, has said that the deputy president is keen on time-allocation during the debate.

Ruto’s confirmation came on the back of speculation that he could miss the debate after he went on the record alleging that the media was biased against him.

 “If the debate will last two or three hours, that’s even better. We can even do ten hours provided that the moderators focus on key issues facing Kenyans. It would be pointless to attend the debate if it will major on non-issues,” Hussein Mohamed said on Thursday, July 21 during a press conference at the UDA Command Center in Westlands, Nairobi.

Mohamed said he hopes key sectors of the society such as health and manufacturing will be covered during the debate.

 “Let them (debate organisers) inform us of the amount of time that will be allocated to the participants and the thematic areas so that we can prepare accordingly,” he said.

On July 19, UDA deputy presidential candidate Rigathi Gachagua faced off against Azimio la Umoja’s Martha Karua.

Gachagua was accused by a section of observers of majoring on attacking President Uhuru Kenyatta and his family.

Mohamed said Gachagua spent most time on that because of “the framing of questions” by the moderators.

Earlier, there were fears that Gachagua would give the July 19 debate a wide berth, given UDA’s initial stance on media neutrality.

 “There was no change of heart [among UDA members in regard to debate attendance]. We advised the candidate (Rigathi Gachagua) to attend the debate. And that was based on our experience and the media environment. It was upon the candidate to honour the advice or not,” said Mohamed.

On June 2, Hussein Mohamed had written a protest statement, saying they had advised DP William Ruto not to attend the presidential debate because a section of the media was biased against him.

 “Under the current partisan media environment, we have advised our candidate against participating in the presidential debate,” said Mohamed in a press release.

The July 26 presidential debate will have two sessions.

The first session (tier one) will be between George Wajackoyah of Roots Party and David Mwaure of Agano Party. The duo polled below five per cent in various popularity surveys conducted at different times.

The tier one debate will be moderated by Ken Mijungu of KTN News and Smriti Vidyarthi of NTV.

The tier two debate between William Ruto of UDA and Raila Odinga of Azimio la Umoja – candidates with a popularity rating above five per cent – will be moderated by Eric Latiff of KTN News and Yvonne Okwara of Citizen Television.