Former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, through his presidential campaign secretariat spokesman, Makau Mutua, explained how Mathira lawmaker Rigathi Gachagua influenced his decision not to attend the presidential debate scheduled for today.
Speaking during an interview on K24, on Monday, July 25, Prof Mutua disclosed that Gachagua's statements and conduct during the debate made the ODM boss reconsider his intentions to debate Deputy President William Ruto.
He explained that Gachagu'a focus on President Uhuru Kenyatta clearly indicated that the Kenya Kwanza team was hell-bent on using the national platform to campaign against the Head of State who was not running for office.
Mutua added that they feared that the Kenya Kwanza team would continue breaching the debate rules as was witnessed during the running mates debate last week.
"He spent most of his time running against Uhuru who was not there. I think he broke many debate rules and pulled a piece of paper from his paper at some point.
"We are not sure whether he had an earpiece and was being instructed on what to say. He was not there do debate Karua but talk about Uhuru," he stated
Further, Raila's spokesperson divulged that they had been hesitant to let Karua attend last week's debate, adding that it was Narc Kenya leader's desire to debate her counterpart.
"We struggled with the issue of whether Karua should have gone to debate Gachagua given his history and the ongoing court cases. Karua wanted to debate him as so she did.
"What we saw was someone who was not fit to share the podium with Karua."
On the other hand, Ruto has urged Raila to reconsider his decision stating that he was looking forward to engaging the former premier on issues facing Kenyans during the debate.
The Kenya Kwanza team has previously blamed Gachagua's focus on the retiring Head of State on the framing of questions by the moderators.
"If the moderators are focused on non-issues, then it is pointless. The 1 hour 30 minutes would have been enough if the moderators were not focused on personalities and relations that do not matter," WSR Presidential Secretariat Director of Communications, Hussein Mohamed stated.
Meanwhile, it's all systems go at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa - CUEA, with organizers stating that the Tuesday, July 26 presidential debate was still on, despite threats by the Azimio candidate.
