When the two rivals met on the stage for the presidential debate on Monday
night, the rivalry that has characterised their campaign melted aPrime Minister Raila Odinga and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta must have surprised the audience at Brookhouse School — and their respective supporters — when they shook hands, smiled and even looked each other in the eye as they shared compliments.
The two have been slugging it out on the campaign trail over the thorny question of land ownership, the implementation of the Constitution and the tribal arithmetic of their respective coalitions.
When NTV’s Linus Kaikai, the moderator of the first session of the debate, asked them how they felt about each other, they said they had no personal differences.
See him as brother
“Personally, I have no differences with honourable Raila. I see him as a brother and as a colleague,” said Mr Kenyatta.
And Mr Odinga said: “I have nothing personal against Mr Kenyatta. In fact, we are best of friends.”
He referred to Mr Kenyatta as “my brother” in some of his subsequent remarks.
Mr Odinga also referred to Ms Martha Karua, the Narc Kenya presidential candidate, as “my sister”.
“At the end of the day, after politicians incite, it is the poor who suffer. We, the political class, never fight. They have seen us here laughing, greeting each other, they should not allow us to mislead them with talk of ethnicity,” said Ms Karua during the debate that many Kenyans followed on eight TV stations and 34 national radio stations.
As expected, Mr Musalia Mudavadi (Amani Coalition), Mr Peter Kenneth (Eagle Coalition), Prof James ole Kiyiapi (Restore and Build Kenya) — did not have any extreme views.
Safina’s Paul Muite, who has been a critic of Mr Kenyatta, surprisingly changed tack and volunteered a legal opinion that the International Criminal Court erred in failing to take the top two presidential candidates in the 2007 General Election to answer for the post-election violence.
Comic relief at the inaugural debate came from Mr Mohammed Abduba Dida. He delivered punchline after punchline laced with basic common sense.
“I was teaching 40 students in a class, and whatever message I was giving the students I realised the 40 million are lacking in the same. I just expanded my class. I want to teach the 40 million Kenyans that you cannot cry when people are crying, or laugh when people are laughing. We need to be principled,” said Mr Dida.
