Azimio yet to decide when to hold town hall meeting,Makau Mutua clarifies

We have not settled on the exact date we will hold the town hall meeting, Azimio la Umoja coalition presidential campaign spokesman Prof Makau Mutua says.

His clarification came hours after he released a statement to the effect that Raila Odinga would not participate in the Presidential Debate scheduled for Tuesday, but would be holding a ‘Question and Answer’ session with voters at Jericho Social Hall.

During an interview at Spice FM  this morning, Prof. Mutua said that the coalition had not made the final decision on when it will hold the town hall meeting with locals.

“Let me clarify this because it cannot go uncorrected. We have not decided yet on when we will hold the town hall meeting. It could happen on the same day as the debate or not. We have not made the decision,” Prof. Mutua said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etXC_FTVfZw

When questioned further on why the Azimio coalition presidential campaign secretariat decided to opt out of the debate, he said: their competitor was not morally upright, the debate had no effect on their votes and it was also dominated by malpractice.

“We feel that he [DP William Ruto] does not have the moral standing to share a platform with our candidate [Raila]. We also feel he should never have been cleared to run for office. No civilized country, considering his character and history, would allow such a person to hold public office. He has been mentioned in many wrongdoings, mostly criminal. If it were a country where rule of law is strictly upheld, he would be behind bars,” Prof Mutua explained his argument.

Prof Mutua also opined that debates were a recent invention in the General Election which have no impact on the voters’ decision-making.

“Debate is a mini school event compared to a campaign. It is just a 90-minute event while we have been campaigning for months and Kenyans have heard us. If there is one person who has not made up their mind, they probably will not make up their mind. Debates will not convince them. Both parties have been in government for a long time and Kenyans can decide based on each one’s track record,” he added.

While defending the coalition’s move to skip the presidential debate, Prof Mutua said Azimio’s top officials reached the decision after noticing some malpractice in the previous debates.

“This was a heavy decision to make because as you know, Odinga has supported the debate before and appeared in both [2013 and 2017], The decision was taken after careful deliberations. You don’t make such decisions from the hip. That’s why it took us so long to make it,” he said.

In addition, the Azimio spokesperson lauded Odinga’s running mate Martha Karua for bravely facing her Kenya Kwanza counterpart.

“Our running mate [Karua] decided to debate Gachagua and she did. What we saw in the debate… the two should not have shared a platform. Gachagua used the platform to hurl abuses and insults. In fact, he spent the whole time discussing [President] Kenyatta who was not in the debate.”

Prof Mutua also accused Rigathi Gachagua, United Democratic Alliance (UDA) running mate of breaking a number of the debate rules.

“He removed a piece of paper from his pocket because these people are not bounded by law or morality. He broke the rules every second of that debate. If Gachagua did that, imagine what Ruto will do because he [Gachagua] is Ruto Junior.”