Senator Sakaja arrives late for Nairobi gubernatorial debate
Senator Johnson Sakaja has arrived some 20 minutes into the Nairobi gubernatorial debate that is currently underway at the Catholic University for Eastern Africa (CUEA) main campus in Karen.
The Nairobi senator, who is running on a UDA ticket, stepped on stage with an apology to the panelists and audience, while blaming Nairobi traffic for his late arrival.
Sakaja jokingly said, without elaborating, that he wanted to give his main rival in the race, Polycarp Igathe, a head start as he is used to.
“The reason why I’m late is because Igathe is used to head-starts and I wanted to give him one,” Sakaja said.
At the time of his arrival, his main opponent in the race, Igathe of the Jubilee party, had been fielding questions from the panelists for about 20 minutes.
Earlier on, Mr Igathe, has promised to show maturity in the debate.
Mr Igathe, who was speaking after he arrived at the venue of the debate, also described Nairobi as the country’s “living room”.
“We will show maturity in tonight’s debate, Nairobi is Kenya’s sitting room and people behave well in the living room,” he said.
Earlier in the day, four other candidates, whose popularity ratings in three recent opinion polls stood below 5 per cent, had participated in the first tier debate.
The four candidates who attended the first tier debate are Esther Waringa (Independent), Herman Grewal (Safina Party), Nancy Mwadime (Usawa Kwa Wote party) and Kenneth Nyamwamu (United Progressive Alliance).
Former journalist Denis Kodhe of Liberal Democratic Party was among four candidates who skipped the debate, citing discrimination of the candidates based on their popularity.
“I strongly feel uncomfortable to participate in a debate forum that is conducted in tiers and that categorizes candidates according to what is purported strength from uninformed findings in the name of opinion polls,” Kodhe said in a letter addressed to organizers.
Other candidates who failed to show include Ann Kagure, Cleophas Mutua (Ford Kenya), and Agnes Kagure (Independent).