According to the team organising the debate jointly through the Media Owners of Kenya MoA, Media Council of Kenya, MCK, and the Kenya Editors Guild, the Presidential debate will take place before this on July 26. (KEG).
The team will also hold a debate at Catholic University for the Nairobi gubernatorial contenders.
“We are delighted to confirm to the country that those preparations are now in their final leg and today, we are announcing key details about the debates which will all take place this month, July 2022,” Head of the Debates Secretariat Clifford Machoka said in a statement.
The Nairobi gubernatorial debate, which will take place on July 11th, will also be part of this year’s debate.
All of the debates will take place at the Catholic University for Eastern Africa (CUEA) main campus in Karen, Nairobi, from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm, according to a statement from the head of the Presidential Debates Secretariat.
“For the last one year, the Media Owners Association, the Media Council of Kenya and the Kenya Editors’ Guild in partnership with other key stakeholders, have been preparing for the Election Debates, which have become a tradition in our election cycles since 2013. We are delighted to confirm to the country that those preparations are now in their final leg and today, we are announcing key details about the debates which will all take place this month, July 2022,” Machoka said.
The Nairobi Gubernatorial Debate, according to the Secretariat, will take place in two tiers, with the first tier consisting of candidates for governor whose popularity ratings, as determined by three recent opinion polls, stand below 5 percent and the second tier consisting of candidates who have scored above 5 percent in the same opinion polls.
“In addition to the traditional presidential and deputy presidential debates, we wish to inform the public, that this year we will also have a Gubernatorial Debate for the County of Nairobi. This is in recognition of the central place held by devolution in our governance and the growing need to ensure greater accountability at the county level,” the statement read.
The Kenya Editors’ Guild and the Media Council of Kenya (MCK), in collaboration with other significant parties, are organizing the debate.
To help Kenyans better grasp their platforms, debate organizers have urged all presidential contenders to take part in the scheduled debate.
The request came as William Ruto, the deputy president, swore to stay out of the discussion on alleged unfair media coverage.
According to MOA chairman Stephen Gitagama, the debate will focus on issue-based elections as well as provide an opportunity for the candidates to debate, interact and engage.
“The debate is to allow the candidates to speak with millions of Kenyans to share their dream, to share their vision and what they would like to deliver to Kenyans once they are elected,” he said.
“Also, the debate gives an opportunity to Kenyans to interact to ask questions and create a platform to interact and ask the question to the candidates who want to be their president.”
This will be the third televised presidential debate in the country, the first being in 2013.