KENYAN POLITICS SHAMES UGANDA.

By Andua Martin Drani

Tomorrow 19th July, the Kenyan Deputy Presidential debate will take place at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa ( CUEA) 5-9pm. The debate will attract the four Deputy Presidential candidates namely the three females, Martha Karua of Azimio and running of Raila Amolo Odinga, Ruth Mutua of Agano party and running mate of David Mwaure Waihiga, Justina Wamae of Roots party and running mate of George Luchiri Wajackoyah and Rigathi Gachagua of Kenya Kwanza and running mate of Deputy President Dr. William Samoei Arap Ruto.

All indications are that Kenya Kwanza plans to boycott the debate due to their belief that the media has been hostile to them including the Presidential debate that follows next week on 29th. But the Deputy Presidential debate presents an additional headache for Kenya Kwanza alliance in form of gender. Whereas all the other three Presidential candidates nominated females as their running mates, Ruto and Kenya Kwanza nominated a male who will appear very odd among three females at the debate. In my view, this seems to be real reason for Kenya Kwanza to boycott the Deputy Presidential and Presidential debates otherwise if it was about media bias, their candidates at gubernatorial levels would have equally boycotted the debates. Last week their candidate for the Nairobi gubernatorial seat Sakaja participated in the debate and I have seen other Kenya Kwanza gubernatorial candidates also take part in the debates.

Tomorrow, my judgement is that the attention will be on Martha Karua. My bet is that she will take the day.

That said, I want to applaud Kenya for the advancement and progress they have made in growing their democracy in spite of some of the shortcomings namely, the alliance politics that stifles party development. They are moving more towards American style of politics where the tradition of candidates debates are a key feature of their elections and nomination of running mates. I appreciate the work being done by the Editor's Guild in Kenya in organising the debates. One can see a higher level of maturity in the campaigns.

Unlike Uganda, one doesn't see the security meddling in the campaigns. If this was Uganda, the army and security would have already murdered and tortured several citizens. A number of offices of organisations would have been ransacked and many abductions and disapearences would have occured already.

Congratulations Kenya.

Can Museveni learn a lesson from your campaigns?

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