Why Uhuru won’t be in discussion

By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com  ( email the author)

Posted  Wednesday, February 20  2013 at  19:50

In Summary

• Cord team accused Jubilee counterparts of plan to avoid land questions

The Jubilee and Cord presidential campaign teams Wednesday exchanged harsh words over deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision to withdraw from the second presidential debate.

The Cord team claimed Mr Kenyatta had pulled out of next Monday’s debate to avoid the controversial land question.

But the Jubilee team explained that Mr Kenyatta’s time would be better spent on the campaign trail.

“With all due respect, we are of the opinion that with less than a fortnight to go before the polling day, our candidate’s time can be better spent on the campaign trail rather than participating in a skewed, shambolic and farcical second debate,” read a statement by Mr Kenyatta’s team circulated Wednesday.

“Based on these facts, we want to make it clear that Mr Uhuru Kenyatta will not be taking part in the second debate,” it concluded.

But in a swift reaction, the Cord team claimed Mr Kenyatta was afraid of addressing the land question.

“We are aware that one of the questions for the debate is touching on land and we expect any politician intending to govern this country to be ready to highlight on how they are going to tackle the issue if elected on March 4,” said the statement signed by retired Lt General John Koech and former MP Ochieng Mbeo on behalf of Cord coordination committee leaders Franklin Bett and Gideon Ndambuki.

“We are shocked that Mr Uhuru Kenyatta has persistently evaded the issue of land whenever questions are raised and we are not surprised at his withdrawal from the second National Presidential Debate,” the statement read.

“We know that he has always stated that if elected, he will address the issue of land, but we are asking how? We urge Mr Kenyatta not to shy away from this issue; after all it affects everyone in Kenya,” the statement continued.

Mr Kenyatta’s campaign team had accused debate moderators of targeting their candidate especially on the cases before the International Criminal Court while letting the other candidates get away with equally serious integrity questions.

“It was profoundly unprofessional and tasteless for Kaikai to use the ICC indictments as a platform for allowing the other candidates to ride roughshod over Uhuru without equally raising questions related to their suitability and competency,” the team stated, referring to the debate’s moderator, NTV’s Linus Kaikai.

“If Kaikai had genuine intentions of exposing the weaknesses of all the candidates in the debate, then he would have dredged into the shady past of candidates like PM Raila Odinga, Peter Kenneth, Paul Muite, Martha Karua, Musalia Mudavadi, and former PS James ole Kiyiapi, all of whom are burdened by varying degrees of either graft allegations or moral issues.”