Sunday, October 14, 2012

Tough issues await aspirants in TV debate


By Joe Kiarie
“You of course being the son of a man many Kenyans regard as being responsible for many of the land issues that remain unresolved since...”
This was set to be yet another salvo in a series of stinging questions directed at Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta by English journalist Stephen Sackur when the presidential hopeful appeared on BBC World News’ HARDtalk programme in July 2008.
Uhuru had until then showcased fluency and composure against a torrent of thorny questions. But it soon became clear the interviewer was trying to ram him into a wall regarding the ownership of vast chunks of idle land by the Jomo Kenyatta family in a country full of squatters.
Rather instinctively and before millions of viewers worldwide, Uhuru decided to fight fire with fire, visibly losing his cool and interrupting the question as the interview degenerated into a frenzied showdown.
“It is not that I don’t want to tell you, it is that I don’t need to say on BBC that this is what I have or what I do not have. I don’t need to do it, right?” a livid Uhuru charged after the hard-tackling Sackur asked him about the size of land owned by the family of Kenya’s founding father.
And this is exactly what Kenyans might be treated to starting next month as the country embraces presidential debates. With such forums already on the cards and candidates primarily expected to outline their policies and publicly challenge each other on listed issues, it seems hair-raising questions will be inevitable.
Indeed, Kenyans have already generated a barrage of hard-hitting questions for the hopefuls, exploiting the chance offered by the media owners-organised debate to interrogate leaders via short text message platform 2282, websites, blogs and social media,
On one Diaspora website, Jamhuri Magazine, tough questions have already been set targeting individual presidential aspirants. If the questions are to be adopted by the Presidential Debates Steering Committee, the aspirants will have to answer questions touching on their integrity, past records and the source of their wealth. Some candidates who have served in Government for years will also have to explain their capacity to fix the economy while constituencies they have represented for decades continue to languish in poverty.
Dropped sweat
In what might serve as the perfect rehearsal for the upcoming debates, some presidential hopefuls have already dropped sweat engaging the electorate through social networking sites. Narc-Kenya aspirant Martha Karua recently faced off with a blogger who told her that her candidature in the upcoming polls would depend on how she explains her role in the bungled 2007 elections, which triggered bloody violence.
Martin Tairo accused the former Justice Minister of supervising the flawed reconstitution of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya, which was blamed for mismanaging the polls. In the fierce exchange, every defensive answer Karua gave was met with another blunt comment or question, prompting her to sign off with remarks that an individual would not determine her credibility.
And it seems aspirants will have nowhere to hide, as debates are being organised at home and abroad.
Final logistics
Days after media owners announced there will be three live television debates involving all presidential candidates before the March 4 election, the Kenya Community Abroad (KCA) says it is also working out final logistics for a similar showdown expected to take place in Washington DC by December.
Mkawasi Mcharo Hall, the Project Director of the Kenya Presidential Debates 2012 at the US-based Kenya Debates, says they are finalising details of a debate involving the candidates, having only recently held a mock debate at the Republican National Club in Washington DC.
“As always, it comes down to the candidates’ willingness to sign up the deal. The good news is, a few have already done so, and we trust they will not renege,” she says. The International Commission of Jurists-Kenya Chapter is concurrently planning another major debate slated for February next year, will all forums bordering on US-style live presidential debates. Only a fortnight ago, US Republican candidate Mitt Romney pounded Democratic Party candidate President Barack Obama on his economic, health care, energy and tax policies in a presidential debate that drew over 70 million viewers in the US alone.
Such debates, preceding every election and guided by controversial topical issues, have at times almost decided voting outcome.
Mcharo says embracing such debates in Kenya will be a move in the right direction but adds Kenya has so far faired poorly in interrogating abilities of presidential candidates.
Old spin
“Today, there is no institute or independent intellectual authority in Kenya that can undertake the questioning of presidential candidates on issues. The media has been doing the same old spin of sensational reporting on candidates’ daily dramas with no substance,” she notes.
In the absence of a debates platform, Mcharo, a member of the Board of Trustees, Kenyan Community Abroad, says the country has been wallowing in political immaturity.
“Our politics and choice of leaders is still largely rooted in a candidate’s political clout, ethnicity or wealth. Even the Political Parties Act meant to regulate the administrative, financial and ethical running of a party does not hold a party accountable to creating issue platforms. You can have the cleanest and best-run political party yet it champions nothing,” she charges. Mcharo says only by promoting a culture of debates can parties begin to hoist specific issues, and not individuals, as their flags.
“When that happens, tribalism and socio-economic disparity will begin to fade away,” she says.
Mr Michael Olweny, the team leader of Kenya Aspirants 2012 that is part of the upcoming presidential debate coalition, says debates will pin Kenyan leaders to deliver on their promises.
“We have always elected leaders to power without people knowing them in-depth and most of them never deliver on their promises. A debate will be a good way to hold them answerable just as it is happening with Obama in the US,” he says.
Olweny nonetheless notes that unlike in the US debates involve two candidates, Kenya will have to face serious challenges such as having a crowded stage that could see debates disintegrate. “In a country with deep ethnic polarisation, it might also prove hard to come up with a neutral moderator who is acceptable to all parties,” Olweny adds.
Ocholla Tom Mboya, a political scientist at the University of Nairobi, argues that while debates are crucial, it will take sustained civic education before Kenyans start voting in leaders on the basis of policies and general competence to hold office.




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