Corruption and push to legalise marijuana dominate Justina Wamae, Ruth Mucheru debate

Running mates Justina Wamae (left) and Ruth Mucheru debate at CUEA on July 19, 2022. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

The thorny issue of corruption and the proposal to legalise commercial farming of marijuana dominated the first tier of the deputy presidential debate yesterday.

Roots Party’s Justina Wamae and Ruth Mutua of the Agano Party went head to head, making a case for their respective manifestos.

In a bid to sway the opinion of the 22.1 million voters ahead of the General Election that are just 19 days away, the two deliberated on the high cost of living, impediments to Chapter Six of the Constitution that touches on integrity and what sets them apart from their competitors in the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya and Kenya Kwanza Alliance.

It was, however, the question of what to do with the corrupt and legalising marijuana for export that captivated the audience.

“We need to instill fear in matters of corruption to ensure that people respect public resources. That is why in our manifesto we have proposed hanging the corrupt like in countries like China,’’ said Ms Wamae.

This however drew murmurs from the crowd present and objection from her competitor Ms Mutua.

“According to our Constitution, we are not allowed to hang convicts. People deserve to be corrected and not hanged. Roots party leaders seem intent on breaching the Constitution by first saying that they will smoke weed to purify State House should they clinch power and then by advocating for the hanging of the corrupt,” she said. This preceded their discussion on impediments to Chapter Six on integrity.

Ms Wamae believes that the Judiciary was a stumbling block to justice and the integrity of leaders given that the courts were allegedly being used to sanitise the corrupt. This, she said, was the basis for the Roots Party to introduce hanging for the corrupt.

“To practically deal with corruption, we will first put measures in place to ensure that we increase the salaries of police officers, judges and civil servants to deter them from corruption… and before we hand the corrupt, we will subject them to a fair hearing where if they are found guilty they will be hanged and we recover the stolen assets,” she said.

Ms Mutua was, however, of the view that the lack of goodwill from the government and political leaders was the biggest impediment to Chapter Six.

She proposed a change in leadership and the institutions to recover loot stashed abroad to deal with graft.

“…integrity is very personal. That is why as the Agano Party we are ready to be audited and held accountable,” she said.

“We believe that more than ten trillion is stashed abroad and we have already written to the United Nations to help us retrieve these funds so we can use them for development and to pay off our debt.”

Notably, hanging as a form of capital punishment is still provided for under Kenyan law. However, no executions have been carried out in Kenya since 1987, when Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo Okumu, leaders of the 1982 coup d’état attempt, were hanged for treason.

On the contentious proposal to legalise commercial farming of marijuana, the Roots Party presidential running mate was put to task to explain the practicability of not only ensuring the venture was lucrative but also doing so without corrupting the morals of the Kenyan society.

To this, she proposed the setting aside of 200 acres for the growing of marijuana in each of the 47 counties. Consequently, 50,000 youth in every county will be incentivized to plant and harvest industrial hemp which takes 4 months to grow.

“There are no other options to make money in Kenya so everyone wants to get into politics and our aim is to provide alternatives. We will ensure that industrial hemp is used in key sectors such as in the health, construction and fibre industries. Other countries have done it so why not us?” said Ms Wamae.

Ms Mutua was, however, not buying the idea, citing moral decadence and mental illness as challenges associated with the use of marijuana.

“Bhang is illegal and they know it. We want to know how far they (the Roots Party) will go with it. They are headed in the wrong direction... I’m looking for a happy mother who will attest that their child has smoked and they are okay with it,” she said.

The two, however, seemed to agree on the fact that the country needed new leadership as they both hit out at their Kenya Kwanza and Azmio competitors, noting that they had been in politics for the last 30 years, but this had not amounted to much.

To address the high cost of living, Ms Mutua insisted on reducing the PAYE (pay as you earn) income tax by 50 per cent and introduce subsidies to ugali and other essential foods within Agano’s first 100 days in office.

Ms Wamae on her part promised a reviving of the local industries, addressing the inflation in the country and lowering the cost of agriculture to ensure that farmers not only comfortably contributed to Kenya’s food basket but also had money in their pockets.