Kenyan media houses announced that there will be at least 3 presidential debates before next year’s general elections. The debates will bring together over 10 presidential candidates, and if the country goes for a re run, a fourth debate will be held for the two candidates in the race. The first of these will be held on November 26th, and will be aired by a total of 8 TV stations and 32 radio stations. The other two debates will be held on 14th January 2013 and 11the February 2013.
Reportedly, Citizen TV’s Julie Gichuru and NTV’s Linus Kaikai will moderate the live debates. This revelation did not go down well with many people who have varied reasons why the two should not be the moderators. Some reasons given as to why the two should not moderate are previous performance on high profile assignment and partisan accusations. Linus Kaikai is accused of having grossly underperformed when he got a chance to interview Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, while Julie Gichuru is said to have been intimidated by Uhuru’s presence on Sunday Live. It is also believed that Julie Gichuru had been promised the government spokesperson job by ODM in 2007, while Linus Kaikai had plans to contest a parliamentary seat on a PNU ticket the same year, before dropping those ambitions. The latter is also accused of being plain boring.
On social media, people were busy coming up with names of alternatives they saw as impartial and not easily intimidated.
Some of the names floated included: John Sibi Okumu, famous for his time at ‘Zain Africa Challenge‘,Kathleen Openda Mvati, Jeff Koinange, James Smart and Ahmednasir Abdullahi – Nairobi Law Monthly.
Those vocal against Julie Gichuru and Linus Kaikai included blogger Dennis Itumbi, Robert Alai and Chris Kirubi. Even Jeff Koinange had his preferred choice and it was not either of the two.
Source:nairobiwire.com