Azimio la Umoja One Kenya has distanced itself from a letter demanding the use of lie detectors during the Presidential debate scheduled for next week.
The former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s faction flagged the letter as fake.
The letter – which was making rounds on social media platforms on Friday, July 23 – was purportedly signed by Raila’s campaign secretariat spokesperson, Prof Makau Mutua.
In the fake letter, Azimio had requested the debates planners to ensure that a lie detector is attached to each of the candidates to verify their answers.
“Regarding the presidential debate set for 26th July 2022 to be held at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Team Azimio has reservations based on a cocktail of factors. Central to our unease has been the preferential treatment given to our competitors in previous debates, specifically, the Nairobi gubernatorial debate and the running mates debate.
“None of the candidates should be allowed to take cheat notes or mobile phones, earpieces and other gadgets to the debate. A lie detector should be attached to each candidate and results displayed in real-time,” read the letter part.
Other demands that were entailed in the letter include the presentation of certificates and the establishment of a fact-checking team.
Raila is scheduled to debate Deputy President William Ruto on Tuesday, July 26.
The fake letter emerged days after Ruto’s team wrote to the organisers asking the media to make public the time scheduled for questions that will be asked.
The WSR secretariat noted that the moderators did not focus on issues during the running mates debate which took place on Tuesday, July 19.
“The 1 hour 30 minutes allocated for the running mate debate would have been enough if the moderators were not focused on personalities and relations that do not matter.
“It is sad that nobody heard about the proposal on healthcare yet the debate was being watched by millions of Kenyans. This is why we are saying that they should make public the time allocated for these issues,” WSR Presidential Secretariat Director of Communications, Hussein Mohamed, stated.
The Tuesday debate will be moderated by Yvonne Okwara of Citizen TV and Erick Lattif of KTN News.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE
