No Kenyan with a brain can believe The President on why he snubbed the debate
If you believe that Debates is a waste of time, please read this article first. I’ll wait… Now that you have read it, do you still agree with The President that debates are a waste of time?
In another article, I have outlined theories attempting to explain why The President snubbed the Presidential Debate, and I still believe that The President failed to show up because NASA out maneuvered Jubilee. From The President himself however, he learn that he snubbed the debate because he thinks the debate was a waste of time.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday said he did not participate in the presidential debate organised by the media on Monday evening because it was a waste of time”, Daily Nation reported. In the report, Daily Nation quotes The President as saying, “Do you want me to spend my time responding to Raila or commissioning projects? I decided that he will debate alone because I have nothing to debate with him. I will not waste my time there”.
NASA blogger Faith Mutembei has picked on this reasoning and asked some pertinent questions as follows:
Questions Mr president.
1.Which are those projects launched at night?
2.Were you answerable to Raila or the Kenyan people?
3.Kenyans gave you 5 years in power but you could not spare 90mins for them?
4.So the 8.5million Kenyans tuned waiting for you were foolish n time wasters?
In my article outlining the theories why the President snubbed the debate, I also quipped,
Last evening there was a Kenyan who left work early. There was another who made sure dinner was ready before 7. There was another who had to cross the road in haste, almost being hit by a car, so that s/he didn’t miss the curtain raiser of the country’s second Presidential Debate. Yet another was in a bar or a club, despite it being a weekday, to catch what the two political bigwigs had in store for the country.
These Kenyans, whether deep in rural areas assembling in groups to listen to that one village radio, or lying comfortably on their couches in their Runda mansions, had set aside their valuable time to listen to those they want to entrust the next five years to; to those they want to guard their monies, properties, and wealth.
Other than the belief that the Debate would add no value to the Presidency’s campaign, a sponsored article by Uhuruforus.com states that the reason why The President snubbed the debate is because, as I said, they believed the media was in cahoots with NASA to pin down The President. “Debate was a pro-Raila Media trap for Uhuru”, the title of that article reads. In the article, we find this introduction,
“Elections are not won and lost on media appearances. They are part of many wider considerations during a long campaign. Here are some important facts and reflections on our TV debates in Kenya. They are organised by media houses, which claim to be custodians of public interest and have often said that they are fashioning the debates using the American model.”
Assuming it is true that the Media wanted to pin Uhuru with hard questions, I ask,
- Hasn’t Jubilee achieved its 2013 promises such that no question regarding the promises will be too hard to answer?
- Hasn’t Jubilee driven Kenya to the right direction, that no matter how biased the media would be, Uhuru would still emerge victorious as his performance is there for everyone to see? I mean, other than seeing them in the portal?
- Hasn’t the new Jubilee manifesto so self explanatory that there are no questions regarding its implementation would have needed dodging?
- About corruption, hasn’t Jubilee initiated policies and empowered institutions to fight the vice?
- What questions, really, will be too difficult for Uhuru to answer in presence of a biased Media?
Unless my five questions are actually hard enough for Uhuru to answer.
Both the claim that the debate was a waste of time and that the media was biased can only be believed by Kenyans without a brain. The last time I checked, every Kenyan had a functioning brain. But I may be wrong.