Azimio Town Hall Meeting Scheduled For Thursday

Azimio La Umoja – One Kenya Alliance campaign secretariat professor Makau Mutua on Monday, July 25 confirmed the date for the coalition’s town hall meeting.

According to his statement, the outfit’s presidential flag bearer Raila Odinga will hold his televised town hall meeting in Jericho, Nairobi on Thursday, July 28.

Moreover, this confirmation follows speculations of a possible clash between the town hall session and the much awaited presidential debate.

However, Mr Odinga vowed not to attend the presidential debate scheduled for Tuesday, July 26.

Nonetheless, professor Makau on Sunday, July 24 announced that the Azimio leader will boycott the presidential debate. He claimed that sharing the podium with deputy president William Ruto was a bad idea.

In his statement, Mutua also accused Ruto of trying to dodge discussions on critical issues.

Ruto “has demanded that the debate not focus on corruption, integrity, ethics, and governance — the key existential questions that Kenya faces,” Mutua said.

“Any debate devoid of these questions would insult the intelligence of Kenyans. That is why we do not intend to share a national podium with a person who lacks basic decency.” Read part of the Azimio press statement.

Similarly, Ruto’s Director of Communications Hussein Mohammed also sent a letter to the debate organizers saying he was “ready to answer any question and speak to any matter that arises during the debate” but added that his attendance was “contingent” on certain matters.

Also Read: Sudi Proposes To Debate Raila On Behalf Of Ruto

“We expect that the moderators will allocate equal time to issues affecting Kenyans and equally allow candidates a fair opportunity to address them. To that end, we wish to know in advance the number of minutes that will be allocated to respective interventions including, but not restricted to governance and integrity, agriculture, healthcare, MSMEs and manufacturing, housing, the digital economy, foreign policy, and so on and so forth,” Read the letter.

However, the debate organizers have since insisted that the moderators will select the questions to be asked, and shall NOT share the same with the candidates. 

Furthermore, the debate organizes confirmed that the debate will still continue as planned despite Raila’s withdrawal.