Ex-top minister Raila Odinga, 77, and Deputy President William Ruto, 55, are the principle applicants in Kenya's presidential ballot subsequent month. By Yasuyoshi CHIBA (AFP/File)
One of Kenya's main presidential applicants, Raila Odinga, will now no longer participate in an upcoming electoral debate, his marketing campaign crew stated Sunday, accusing his predominant rival of seeking to keep away from positive subjects together with corruption.
Odinga, 77, a former top minister, and Deputy President William Ruto, 55, are the main contenders withinside the August nine presidential ballot .
But in a assertion saying Odinga could boycott Tuesday's debate, his marketing campaign spokesman accused Ruto of seeking to circumvent dialogue of key troubles.
Ruto "has demanded that the controversy now no longer cognizance on corruption, integrity, ethics, and governance -- the important thing existential questions that Kenya faces," Odinga's spokesman stated withinside the assertion.
"Any debate devoid of those questions could be an insult to the intelligence of Kenyans. That is why we do now no longer intend to proportion a country wide podium with someone who lacks fundamental decency," he introduced.
Instead, Odinga plans to participate in a televised metropolis corridor assembly in an japanese neighbourhood of the capital Nairobi with "regular Kenyans", in keeping with the assertion.
The declaration follows a letter despatched Thursday through Ruto's director of communications to the controversy organisers.
It stated that he was "geared up to reply any query and communicate to any count number that arises all through the controversy" however introduced that his attendance was "contingent" on positive matters.
"We anticipate that the moderators will allocate identical time to troubles affecting Kenyans and similarly permit applicants a honest possibility to cope with them," the letter stated.
"To that quit we desire to recognize earlier the quantity of mins on the way to be allotted to respective interventions including, however now no longer restrained to governance and integrity, agriculture, healthcare, MSMEs and manufacturing, housing, the virtual economy, overseas policy, and so forth and so forth," it continued.
Sitting President Uhuru Kenyatta can't run once more and has advocated Odinga over his deputy of 9 years after an acrimonious falling out.