By Judith Gicobi
George Wajackoyah, the presidential candidate for the Roots party, has given a fresh twist to the anticipated July 2022 presidential debate.
Prior to being allowed to take part in the presidential debate, Wajackoyah has set forth requirements that, in his words, must be met.
The Root presidential candidate said he wasn’t sure if he would participate in the July debate, in an interview with NTV.
He emphasized that he will only take part in the presidential debate if the front-runners William Ruto and Raila Odinga do as well.
Wajackoyah added that if the presidential debate positioned him exclusively against David Mwaure Waihiga, the flagbearer for the Agano party, he would not participate.
“It will depend. Well if Ruto is there and Raila I will. But if Ruto and Raila are not am not going to participate with Mwaure,” Wajackoyah said.
Early this month, Deputy President William Ruto made the decision to skip the scheduled presidential debate.
Ruto stated that the Kenyan media had been prejudiced in its coverage of the Kenya Kwanza team’s campaign rallies through his campaign communications director Hussein Mohammed.
“We have noted with much concern the repeated and continued bias and propaganda in a section of Kenya’s mainstream media in abuse of statutory. Under the current partisan media environment, we have advised our candidate against participating in the presidential debate,” Hussein Mohammed said.
Without specifying a specific date, the Media Owners Association (MOA), Kenya Editors Guild (KEG), and Media Council of Kenya (MCK) stated that the 2022 Presidential Debate would take place in July.
