Kenyan Vice President William Ruto defends his electoral program in a presidential debate without opponents

Ruto blames the country’s indebtedness on the president, Uhuru Kenyatta, and on Raila Odinga, his main opponent in the August 9 elections.

July 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The candidate for the Presidency of Kenya, Vice President William Ruto, for the United Democratic Alliance, has defended his electoral program in a presidential debate that he has attended alone, since his main opponent, the former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, has not appeared .

The debate was held in the framework of the August 9 elections, in which Ruto will face his great rival, at the time an anti-system figure, who surprised analysts and the Kenyans themselves by forging an alliance with the president of the country, Uhuru Kenyatta, in 2018.

Odinga chose Martha Karua as his running mate for the presidential elections, while Ruto chose Rigathi Gachagua, who was an adviser to Kenyatta between 2001 and 2006, as his vice-presidential candidate.

In the framework of the debate, Ruto has blamed the country’s enormous indebtedness on President Uhuru Kenyatta and his associate, Raila Odinga, who has already said that he will not participate in the event. “Our debt today is a challenge, we are living beyond our means, we must stop this wave of loans,” he declared, as reported by the newspaper ‘The Star’.

Likewise, he has defended that part of his economic strategy is the reduction of taxes on imported fuel to alleviate the burden on Kenyan households. “Nearly fifty percent of the cost of fuel in Kenya is taxes. I think it’s time we as a country look at how else we can increase revenue,” she added.

At the meeting, which took place at the Catholic University of East Africa in Karen, Nairobi, the presidential candidate of the Agano Party, Mwaure Waihiga, also spoke briefly, maintaining that he has a clean record of corruption.

“We do not need to wait to restructure our loan (…) We will introduce subsidies on other food products and reduce the payment according to your income by 50 percent,” he said, as reported by the newspaper ‘The Standard’.

Instead of the presidential debate, the former Kenyan prime minister and presidential candidate has addressed his supporters at a campaign rally in Kianjai, where he has said that he cannot go to debate “with a thief and a liar”.

For his part, the fourth presidential candidate, from the Roots Party, George Wajackoyah, has pointed out unfair treatment and, therefore, has excused himself from the meeting, according to different local Kenyan media.