NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 13- The Deputy Presidential debate will be held on Tuesday next week.
A statement from the Presidential Debate Secretariat says the debate will be held in two tiers, starting at 5pm with candidates whose popularity rating based on three recent opinion polls is less than 5 per cent.
It will be followed by candidates with above 5per cent popularity rating who will face each other at from 7pm to 10pm.
“Under the presidential debate rules, the moderators will select the questions to be asked and shall not share the same with candidates,” said Clifford Machoka, Head of the Presidential Debate Secretariat.
Both debates will be held at the Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) where the Nairobi gubernatorial debate was held on Monday.
Head of the Presidential Debate Secretariat Clifford Machoka says invitations have been sent to all the candidates.
The main presidential debate will be held on July 26.
The debate is organized jointly by the Media Owners of Kenya (MOK), Media Council of Kenya (MCK) and the Kenya Editors Guild (KEG).
Organizers of the debate have urged all candidates to participate in the debate so as to enable Kenyans understand their agenda.
The plea came even as Deputy President William Ruto vowed to keep off the debate accusing the media of bias.
But a new survey by the Media Council of Kenya shows that Ruto now enjoys more media coverage at 46 per cent than his main competitor Raila Odinga of the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya who got 45 per cent in the past week.
A previous report by MCK had indicated that Ruto was not getting as much coverage as Odinga, in what the Deputy President said force him to keep off from the presidential debate.
This will be the third televised presidential debate in the country, the first being in 2013.
In the 2017 presidential debate, President Uhuru Kenyatta kept off but it still went on.
