Today’s presidential debate a must-watch for all voters

Kenya’s first ever presidential debate goes on air tonight. Six of the eight presidential candidates will field questions from two sets of journalists. The four interviewers are fairly respectable television personalities and professionals.

But this event will be more significant for Kenyans, not just the 200 who will be in the debating hall, but the millions who will follow the parley locally and around the world.

Live interview

The discourse is a live interviewing of the candidates for the jobs they have offered themselves for. Their language and demeanour will say so much about them, but above all, we shall be able to judge their astuteness, readiness for the job, and rate the solutions they present to the myriad challenges facing Kenya. We shall infer their suitability for the most important public office in the land by their responses to the issues facing Kenyans. In political rallies, they are guided by populism, but in a controlled live debate, they must justify the promises they have made to turn  around the economy.

Once the cameras are rolling, the camaraderie of public rallies is over, and the candidates must address issues logically, practically and soberly.  Today, therefore affords Kenyans the rare opportunity to judge the candidates on merit.  Well, they will have been assisted in research and anticipation of questions that would inevitably spring up, but viewers would want to see them debate issues eloquently, convincingly, and persuasively. Woe unto the candidate fails to put up a convincing argument on, say, improving economic growth, reducing joblessness, ending insecurity, and taming corruption and tribalism.

Historical injustices

Kenyans will also be keen to hear their strategies for tackling the Land Question, which remains a political eyesore. How will they address other historical injustices, as well as the controversial issue of The Hague Four’s trials that have roped in a leading candidate and his running mate?

The debates also are educational in nature, and will help viewers understand the problems facing the country, and how they can be tackled. And although many Kenyans might well have made up their minds on who they will vote for, the debate will definitely assist the pool of undecided voters make up their minds.

This is critical, because every vote matters, and the country is crying for a leader with an overwhelming mandate to rule, particularly given the Constitution’s new proviso for a 50+1 per cent win in the first round, and accompanying scoop of at least 25 per cent of votes cast in at least half the Counties. 

Finally, whereas one could argue that it is not necessarily true that the best debater would be the best governor, it must be remembered that the contest will not be about mastery of English but prudent management of public affairs, national discipline, and mobilising and marshaling Kenyans towards one goal; one nation, one people.