Wajackoyah threatens to boycott presidential debate if demands aren't met

He said he wants all the four candidates to meet face to face.

by BERTHA OCHOMO

News12 July 2022 - 09:33

In Summary

• Wajackoyah said he will boycott presidential debate if it will be split into two tiers.

• All the debates are held at the Catholic University for Eastern Africa.

Presidential aspirant George Wajackoyah at BOMAS of Kenya on Monday, May 30, 2022.

Roots Party presidential aspirant George Wajackoyah has threatened to boycott the presidential debate that is scheduled for July 26 if his demands are not met.

In an interview with KTN News on Sunday, Wajackoyah said he will boycott the presidential debate if it will be split into two tiers.

Even though the organisers were not specific as to whether the four presidential candidates will share the same podium or not, the Roots party leader said he is ready to turn down the invite if he will not share the podium with UDA's William Ruto and Azimio's Raila Odinga.

"What's wrong with the four of us sharing the same podium? If they pair Ruto and Raila, then me and David Mwaure, I will not attend the debate," he said.

He claimed that he had been informed by some of the organisers that they were planning to have a two-tier debate for the presidential contenders.

"I have information from those who are organising the presidential debate that they will hold a so-called mini poll so that they can pair Raila with Ruto and me with Mwaure," he added.

Wajackoyah said that is a sign of degrading him and Mwaure, something that he said he will not take lightly.

"Does it mean that we are the last remnants of society? I want us to have a face to face debate with Raila and Ruto," he said.

The Roots Party candidate said all the candidates are at par academic wise and so there is no need to split the debate into two.

The presidential debates are set to take place a week after the Deputy Presidential debates which will be held on Tuesday, July 19.

All the debates will be held at the Catholic University for Eastern Africa (CUEA) main campus located in Karen, Nairobi, from 5:00 pm to 10:00pm.

The latest debate to happen was for the Nairobi Gubernatorial seat that took place on Monday having the first tier moderated by Serfine Achieng' Ouma of KBC and Ayub Abdikadir of K24.

The second tier was moderated by Zubeida Koome of KTN and Mark Masai of NTV.