On Thursday night, exactly one week from the day Kenya's public will go to the polls, the presidential candidates were grilled hard at the second televised debate.
The candidates were grilled hard on several issues, but corruption and avoiding a repeat of the 2007 post-election violence were at the top of the agenda at the Brookhouse International School in Nairobi. The debate was moderated by veteran television journalists Uduak Amimo of Citizen TV and Joe Ageyo from KTN.
All eight candidates (Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta, Martha Karua, Musalia Mudavadi, Peter Kenneth, James ole Kiyiapi, Mohamed Abduba Dida and Paul Muite) were in attendance at the three and a half our debate, despite reports that front-runner (along with Odinga) Kenyatta would not be attending. The candidates were given the chance to go into detail about their stances on corruption, the economy, land and natural resource management as well as how to avoid post-election violence.
Corruption was the most pressing issue brought forward to the candidates, with all of them on the mat at various points in the debate regarding deals they had been involved in. These included challenges to Kenyatta about his time as Finance Minister; Kiyiapi being forced to answer to the corruption that beleaguered the education department during his questions; Karua, Mudavadi and Muite all had to answer challenges on The Goldenberg scandal; and Odinga was forced to answer questions about the Molasses plant.
ARC candidate Mohamed Abduba Dida got the biggest laugh (and accolades on social media) when he pointed out to the moderator that his challenges to each candidate on corruption scandals they had been involved in was a fruitless endeavour. Dida said: "Thank you for your sincerity, pertaining your questions on integrity and leadership. But did you expect a thief to tell you ‘I’ve stolen’?” Dida is far behind in the polls and stands no chance of winning the election, this position is perhaps what gave him the freedom to take a bolder and more colourful stance than the other candidates.
According to the latest polls, as reported on in The Star, Kenyatta has taken the lead for the first time since polling for this election began. He leads by 44.8% while Odinga is just behind him on 44.4% and with 5.2% Mudavadi is way back in third.
All eight candidates (Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta, Martha Karua, Musalia Mudavadi, Peter Kenneth, James ole Kiyiapi, Mohamed Abduba Dida and Paul Muite) were in attendance at the three and a half our debate, despite reports that front-runner (along with Odinga) Kenyatta would not be attending. The candidates were given the chance to go into detail about their stances on corruption, the economy, land and natural resource management as well as how to avoid post-election violence.
Corruption was the most pressing issue brought forward to the candidates, with all of them on the mat at various points in the debate regarding deals they had been involved in. These included challenges to Kenyatta about his time as Finance Minister; Kiyiapi being forced to answer to the corruption that beleaguered the education department during his questions; Karua, Mudavadi and Muite all had to answer challenges on The Goldenberg scandal; and Odinga was forced to answer questions about the Molasses plant.
ARC candidate Mohamed Abduba Dida got the biggest laugh (and accolades on social media) when he pointed out to the moderator that his challenges to each candidate on corruption scandals they had been involved in was a fruitless endeavour. Dida said: "Thank you for your sincerity, pertaining your questions on integrity and leadership. But did you expect a thief to tell you ‘I’ve stolen’?” Dida is far behind in the polls and stands no chance of winning the election, this position is perhaps what gave him the freedom to take a bolder and more colourful stance than the other candidates.
According to the latest polls, as reported on in The Star, Kenyatta has taken the lead for the first time since polling for this election began. He leads by 44.8% while Odinga is just behind him on 44.4% and with 5.2% Mudavadi is way back in third.
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