The conversation right now in the country is about the high cost of living and the fight against corruption.
The two issues have remained central to the raging debates and campaigns ahead of the August 9 elections. The cost of living in Kenya has been skyrocketing for the last five years. And as widely expected, the Gachagua vs Karua encounter attracted huge public attention, considering they are deputies to the two leading presidential frontrunners.
It appears to most analysts that both candidates put in remarkable effort to sell the manifestos of their political wings to Kenyans. While Gachagua stuck to the hustler funding narrative, Karua on the other hand projected the fight against corruption as their salient brand respectively.
Additionally, the high cost of living is a thorny issue in the ongoing presidential campaigns across the country. A majority of Kenyans across all the social strata have been feeling the pinch of harsh economic times and undoubtedly, the price of the most basic needs is beyond the reach of the ordinary citizen.
Addressing access to food and other basic commodities must be prioritized by the next government that assumes power after August 9 and every candidate has strongly promised the magical measures they will take to drastically lower food prices.
In the absence of a clear strategy to support ordinary Kenyans, most Kenyans have been pushed to the poverty bracket. This is a sad reality that requires urgent attention. This has fuelled public debate around the forthcoming elections, with every political divide exuding confidence that it will address the prevailing challenges.
What is interesting is the fact that most of our leaders will struggle to know the prices of essential goods and services. Questions from the panelists about the cost of kerosene and the fertilizer appeared to throw the debaters off balance.
There is one common and interesting denominator in the Karua vs Gachagua debate: They both agreed the economy is in bad shape and it needs to be fixed urgently.
Like one of the Kenyans opined after the debate, we are faced with choices where Karua-Raila ticket wants to supposedly rescue the economy that appears to have been badly messed up by the current regime led by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who happens to be the chairman of the Azimio Coalition.
On the other hand, the Ruto-Gachagua ticket hopes to rescue an economy that has nosedived under the UhuRuto administration, where Ruto is still serving as the Deputy President and Gachagua is said to have been a long-serving personal assistant to Uhuru way back before he became president.
Kenyans are presented with the reality that either side of the political divide has been in government at one given time and ultimately, whoever becomes president will take the trappings of power with the public expecting that the next government will stabilize the ship to the shores of economic prosperity.
The next government has its in-tray full of endless demands from resizing public debt to addressing the cost of living standards.
The big question is whether the debates were helpful to sway the undecided voters toward a particular political divide. In my considered view, the organisers ought to schedule the national debates at a good time to give Kenyans and the invited candidates more opportunities to sell their agenda to the general public.
A single debate offers inadequate time to defend their plans for the country or regional governments in the case of county debates.
Will the political leaders keep their promises made to Kenyans once they assume power?
It is a huge struggle to convince Kenyans that the political leadership of this country is committed to dealing with the prevailing challenges.
Yes, Kenya is going to the polls come August this year and as nation, we are grappling with the very issues that we have always hoped to be addressed by the government of the day. Concerned citizens can only hope that this trend will be reversed.
Nakhurenya Eric is a public policy and legal Consultant
