National Super Alliance (NASA) presidential candidate Raila Odinga was on Monday put on the spot as he was asked to address tough questions during the 2017 Presidential Debate.
Linus Kaikai, a moderator from NTV, opened the floor by addressing the fact that Mr Odinga was on his fourth try at the presidency, seeking to find out what made him believe that he deserved a chance in 2017.
"Honourable Raila, you are running for the presidency of this country for the fourth time against the backdrop of very sad statistics...especially on the cost of living, corruption and unemployment.
"What is your answer to these things and why do you see yourself as the answer to these questions.
To which Mr Odinga answered: "It is my fourth time running, correct. As you know, I lost once in those past three elections. I am running because of my commitment to change this country. I represent change," before he went on to explain that the main problem was mismanagement of the economy by the Jubilee regime.
The Opposition leader was further tasked with explaining how his government would fulfil the campaign promise of reducing rent for Kenyan citizens.
"You have spoken of reducing rent and the price of housing. How do you plan to do that in a free market economy like Kenya?" Mr Kaikai inquired.
The presidential candidate struggled to gather his thoughts and finally revealed that the promise was targetted at people who live in low-cost housing under a pre-existing Constitutional law.
"There's a law which is called the Land Restrictions Act meant to deal with low-cost housing where poor people live. Informal settlements like you have them in Kibera, Mathare, Mukuru kwa Njenga and so on," Raila stated.
Co-moderator Joe Ageyo of KTN News took the Opposition leader back to his time as the Prime Minister, raising issues of nepotism.
"Mr Odinga, people who look at your own record often charge that while you were Prime Minister that your office had quite a number of people from your ethnic community and as a matter of fact even in your politics there are people who are related to you who often get nominations to run on your ticket and that somehow your politics has been defined by tribally inclined decisions," Mr Ageyo laid out.
Odinga strongly opposed the claims citing that Heads of Departments in the Prime Minister's office were all from different tribes.
"I did not know, Joe, that when you are appointed Prime Minister then nobody related to you should be employed by the government," a clearly agitated Raila remarked.
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The moderator quickly moved along to the next query where Mr Odinga's Twitter handle was in question.
"Mr Odinga you have about 1.1 million followers on Twitter and there's a lot of hate going on there. There are people who say bad things to other Kenyans in your name and I haven't seen you say anything about that," Mr Ageyo posed.
Replying, the Opposition leader stated: "Social media is a free media. Don't regulate it...I don't want to interfere with the Freedom of Expression...It is something that is new and maybe even you people in media are also not used to it."
Another touchy subject that Mr Odinga had to settle was whether his family and that of President Uhuru Kenyatta had held Kenyan politics hostage for a long time, referring to the leadership of Raila's father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Kenyatta's father the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta
In a surprising move, Raila defended both himself and the president, stating that they had earned their place and proved their worth.
Read More: Raila Strongly Defends Uhuru [VIDEO]
