Ruto’s campaign team confirms he’ll attend Presidential Debate

The campaign secretariat of Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate William Ruto has confirmed that he will attend the upcoming Presidential Debate slated for next Tuesday, July 26.

Hussein Mohamed, the secretariat’s ​​Director of Communications on Thursday told journalists that Dr. Ruto will participate in the exercise which will see him and Azimio La Umoja coalition presidential candidate Raila Odinga go head-to-head in the debate.

Ruto, Mr. Mohamed said, is “ready for any question” which will be posed to him by the journalists moderating the event.

The team further appealed to the debate’s secretariat to ensure the debate will not be ‘trivialised’ and that adequate time will be allocated towards discussing what they called issues affecting Kenyans.

“We have made a formal request to the Presidential Debates secretariat to make public the time allocation to issues affecting Kenyans, including governance and integrity, agriculture, healthcare, MSMEs, manufacturing, housing, digital economy, foreign policy, and so on,” said Mohamed.

Ruto’s team had previously threatened pulling out of the 2022 political debates altogether, citing media bias.

Addressing the press last Friday, Mohammed said that the Kenya Kwanza outfit had given an ultimatum that if that doesn't change, it is unlikely DP Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua would turn up for the debates.

Mohamed said that the pair would make their own decision on whether to avail themselves for the debates or not.

Mr. Gachagua, however, ended up attending the Deputy Presidential Debate on Tuesday, July 19, after which Ruto congratulated his performance.

Tuesday’s debate will take place at the Catholic University for Eastern Africa in Nairobi from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

It will be televised in a joint broadcast and will be conducted in two tiers; first one for those with less than 5% approval ratings (Root Party’s Prof. George Wajackoyah and Agano Party candidate Waihiga  Mwaure) and second one for those with 5% and above (Dr. Ruto and Mr. Odinga).