NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 18-An epic battle of words and ideas between Kenya’s leading deputy presidential candidates await Kenyans on Tuesday, as they face off in a televised debate.
The 2022 Deputy presidential debate is divided into two tiers, but it is the second that proves to be a real duel of titans.
Kenya Kwanza Deputy Presidential candidate Rigathi Gachagua will face off Martha Karua of the Azimio la Umoja alliance.
Karua is deputizing Raila Odinga, a longtime Kenyan politician with decades of experience while Gachagua is deputizing Deputy President William Ruto.
While Karua’s alliance is running on an anti-corruption platform, Gachagua and his team promise to introduce an economic ‘revolution’ through their bottom-up agenda.
Why is the debate important?
The debates have become the place for clarity of priorities, public policy ideas, and other development aspects key to the Kenyan people.
The debate comes at a time Kenya’s economy is ailing from a myriad of issues- and corruption is among them at least according to the Azimio la Umoja coalition.
For the Kenya Kwanza coalition, the current challenges are due to what they term as state capture and cronyism, which its leader DP Ruto has vowed to dismantle.
KBC’s Jacob Kioria and Linda Alela of TV47 will moderate the first tier while Sophia Wanuna of KTN and James Smart of NTV will moderate the second tier.
Panel discussions for both debates will be moderated by Trevor Ombija of Citizen TV.
“The moderators have been selected based on rigorous criteria that, among other things, endear the principles of impartiality, fairness and objectivity, as strong understanding of the Kenyan political landscape and the major issues of this election. Under the presidential debates rules, the moderators will select the questions to be asked, and shall not share the same with the candidates. They will NOT meet with any of the campaign teams or the candidates,” the Presidential Debates Secretariat said.
There were fears that Gachagua might fail to turn up for the much-awaited debate, but it is now all clear, after he attended the venue for a briefing on the rules of the debate.
Karua has since indicated that she will be attending the debate.
Gachagua and his coalition had earlier warned of failing to attend the debate because of what they termed as media bias.
They accuse a section of media houses of openly rooting for Odinga after a Media Council of Kenya report revealed he was enjoying most of the coverage at above 50 percent.
Subsequent reports indicate that has changed and the coverage though not constant has improved for Ruto.
Who is Martha Karua?
Karua hails from Kenya’s largest community, the Kikuyu, whose support is vital in Kenya’s ethnically charged elections.
She is considered as the iron lady of Kenya’s politics.
In 2013, Karua run for President and got 43,881 votes-0.36 percent of the total votes cast. The incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta won the election followed by Odinga.
“History is calling us to close the gender gap in our country,” said Odinga as he announced Karua’s appointment as his deputy on May 16.
Karua said she was “deeply honoured” and thanked the “faceless team of dreamers” who had supported her.
She has been outspoken on corruption in the past, decrying Kenyan politics as a “rich boys’ club.”
The NARC Kenya party leader has previously served as a legislator.
Who is Rigathi Gachagua?
Gachagua is a businessman cum politician, hailing from Central Kenya, just like Karua.
He is also a former administrator during the era of the late Daniel Arap Moi and also served as a personal assistant to President Kenyatta.
The 57-year-old leader is hailed as an eloquent speaker, with a great ability to mobilize political networks he was part of during President Moi’s era.
Currently, he represents Mathira constituency as a Member of Parliament.
An eighth-born in a family of nine children, Rigathi was among politicians loyal to President Kenyatta in the vote-rich central region before he decamped the ruling
Jubilee Party to join Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
His parents were Mau Mau freedom fighters in Mt.Kenya forest where Nashashon Gachagua Reriani was building and servicing guns for the fighters.
Rigathi has Paramilitary training at the Administration Police Institute in 1990.
He studied Advanced Public Administration Course at the Kenya School of Government between 1999 and 2000.
At the University of Nairobi, Gachagua was the Nyeri District University Students Association (NDUSA) leader as well as the chairman of The Association of Literature Students.
His wife Dorcas Wanjiku is a pastor based in Mathare.
Gachagua’s burden as he walks into the debating hall will be a multi-million shillings graft case.
He has since dismissed the charges, saying they were political due to his closeness with DP Ruto.
The first debate will run from 6:00 pm and end at 7:30 pm while the second debate will go on air from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm.
The first to debate will be Justina Wamae who is Prof George Wajackoyah ‘s Roots Party running mate and Agano Party Presidential candidate David Mwaure Waihiga running mate Ruth Mutua.
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