President Uhuru Kenyatta in a past photo. He has withdrawn his participation from the presidential debate due to lack of consultation[Photo/nairobiwire.com]
President Uhuru Kenyatta has withdrew his participation in the upcoming presidential debates claiming he was was not consulted by the organizers of the said debate.
Jubilee Party’s secretary-General Raphael Tuju while confirming President Uhuru Kenyatta’s withdrawal said the decision was taken because it “is being organised through advertisements in the media by some people we do not know”.
“This whole thing smells of conmanship. Because at the bare minimum, they were supposed to get in touch with the campaign to fix a day,” he said.
However, in a rejoinder the organizers of the said debates have come out accusing the Jubilee administration of lying to the country. The organizers claim to have consulted the all the candidates before they started planning for the debate.
Debates Media Limited, a conglomerate of various media houses which is in charge of the debates said in a statement that its steering committee have been in constant communication with the teams attached to the various aspirants and have regularly been updated on the details of the debate.
“We wish to clarify that members of the Steering Committee on the Presidential Debates have been in constant communication with the various campaign teams even before the announcement was made in May,” said the statement signed by Wachira Waruru, the chairman of the Steering Committee on the Presidential Debates.
“Last week, all the presidential campaign teams were invited for a pre-debate briefing in line with our guidelines,” added Mr Wachira.
The company insists it will continue with the plans as it engages the presidential candidates on the way forward.
“In the next few hours, we will be reaching out to all the campaign teams to clarify the guidelines and answer any questions they may have with regard to our formats which have been drawn in accordance with international best practice,” said Mr Waruru, also the managing director of Royal Media Services.