Jubilee Alliance has written a letter to the Presidential Debate 2013 Secretariat protesting what they term as unfairness in how the first debate last week was organized and moderated, and stated that as a result of this TNA presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta will not be participating in the second Presidential Debate scheduled for Monday, February 25th.Jubilee, in the letter says that the moderators chose to put o a lot of focus in the debate on the ICC issue and none on the scandals that have faced other candidates who participated in the debate. “We would have expected that after the introduction of the so-called ‘elephant-in-the-room’ regarding Uhuru Kenyatta and the ICC; due focus would also have been given to equally sizable jumbos (hard questions) touching on other candidates, including the Triton, Maize and Kazi Kwa Vijana scandals involving Prime Minister Raila Odinga,” the letter reads in part.
The letter also touches on the multi-billion shilling Goldenberg scandal in which Musalia Mudavadi and Paul Muite have been prominently mentioned but was not brought up by the moderators in the debate, alleged financial improprieties of Peter Kenneth while at the helm of both KFF and Kenya-Re, and the misappropriation of free education funds at the Education ministry while James ole Kiyiapi served as the Permanent Secretary.
Jubilee specifically protests that Linus Kaikai, one of the two moderators, overstepped his mandate and set the stage for the other candidates to gang up against Uhuru on the ICC issue in the guise of addressing the vital subject of good governance, an issue that took at least 30 minutes of the debate, yet he [Kaikai] did not bring up any of the scandals any of the other candidates have been mentioned in. TNA adds that Kaikai is a known supporter of ODM (Raila Odinga’s party) and that it emerged clearly from the way he moderated the debate that he had “an axe to grind against Uhuru Kenyatta.” The party also mentions that the other moderator in the debate, Julie Gichuru is an employee of Royal Media Services which owned by S.K Macharia, an outspoken supporter of Raila Odinga.
Jubille say that the integrity issue solely focused on the ICC cases but the Prime Minister was not probed on his suitability for office following his admission that he participated in the 1982 coup attempt, an act TNA terms “an illegal and unconstitutional enterprise aimed at overturning the constitutional order in Kenya.”
While stating that the party torch-bearer will not participate in the upcoming debate, Jubilee Alliance states that it is ready to meet with members of the Presidential Debate 2013 Secretariat to discuss the concerns.
