News and analysis

Yesterday, Raila told Uhuru to reconsider, confirming that the opposition is ready to participate in the debate once the President changes his mind.

Why the other candidates were not present was unclear although some had already voiced objections to the debate format. Broadcasters had planned to have six minor candidates, including Kariara, take the stage first, with the front-runners from the two biggest parties facing off separately later.

The failure of the other candidates to turn up gave Kariara the perfect stage to lay out his platform for Kenya. The University of Nairobi graduate told the audience how he had previously worked as a pig farmer. After struggling to find a job upon graduation, he collected rubbish and converted it to

A tweet by the Deputy President William Ruto gave out the biggest hint of his intent to snub the running mates debate that took place Monday night.

Through a statement on Monday, Nasa said it had already held talks with the debate organisers and ironed out sticky issues they had raised earlier.

The six who missed out had issued a set of demands to attend and ended up making good their threats.

Muthiora Kariara, a political novice who is running with independent presidential candidate Japheth Kaluyu, answered questions for about an hour.

Deputy President William Ruto is with President Uhuru Kenyatta at the coast selling the Jubilee party agenda as they seek a second term in office after the August 8 election.

A TV debate for Kenyan politicians hoping to become deputy president in next month's elections went ahead even though only one candidate took part.

Deputy President William Ruto will not attend the running mates debate on grounds he was never consulted on the matter.

Eliud Muthiora Kariara is the only presidential running mate that showed up for the debate on Monday evening. He is a running mate for Dr. Japheth Kavinga who is eyeing the presidency in the August 2017 elections.

Even though the tradition of presidential debates is yet to be fully institutionalised in Kenya, the momentum gained from the successful events ahead of the 2013 elections should help to entrench this as a tradition with a follow-up this year.