Why I am not looking forward to the Kenyan Presidential Debate
Tomorrow's third and last Presidential American Debate (2012 )is a long awaited event,a few days before the election of the 45th President of the greatest Nation on earth.
The last two debates have generated overwhelming feedback from Americans and the rest of the world.One outstanding thing in Americans is the way they give importance to the outside appearance(looks) of an individual.Our memory would be defined as short if we have forgotten what happened to Gabrielle Douglas,the 16 year old American girl who won double gold in artistic gymnastics in the London Olympics Games 2012,but received a backlash about her unkempt hair.Everything else was ignored;even the fact that she is one of the few American-African gymnasts to compete in Olympic Games and the first black woman ever to take the all-round individual title.
American(and almost all cultures now with globalization)is a superficial culture, and appearance does not just matter but is a MUST.Pretty hard to understand why the outside appearance of a person would be of more importance than the inside.
In the past two presidential debates,Americans have shown once again how short stints and one-minute instants matters to them while judging or evaluating a person.The elevator pitch,they would say; a first impression make a lasting impression.That is the reason why,in just one night of a dominated presidential debate,through rude interuptions,over-talking the moderator,telling lies while refusing to expose his real policies,Mitt Romney was able to convince Americans that he was the best placed man on earth to manage the land of milk and honey;by telling them what they wanted to hear,and not the truth.
The guy,I must admit is a smart debater,is handsome and charming and even looks years younger than the President,but his facts during the two debates were out of touch with the real world.But that,coupled with a higher word count on a shorter time,was enough to convince a nation that is a role model to many,including our nation,that Mitt is the guy to beat!
Pro-Obama's have come up to defend the President,supporting his underperfomance and branding it as a Masterplan,but I fail to see any strategy in it,and if there is one,it must be the wrong strategy.He kept his word,that he was not going to debate with Mitt,but to talk directly to the American people,but this just did him in,and made the Governor of Massachusetts look so empathetic with the middle income and low income earners.
As Kenya goes the American way in a month's time,I am not really enthusiatic about ourPresidential Debate.
Presidential debates have always been important game changers where tables are likely to be turned ;a good example is France,where the incumbent,Nicholas Sarkozy sacrificed himself by underestimating the strength of Francois Hollande,who according to Sarkozy,was incompetent and easy to manipulate, given his inexperience(he had never held a public office).But the flamboyant former President,a lawyer by profession,found himself on the defense as the less popular Hollande was on the offense,aggressively attacking him.That was how Sarkozy lost the May 2012 elections afte serving just one term.Obama,being a good friend of Sarko,should have learned a lesson from this.
Some of the reasons I am not looking forward to the Kenyan debate are among other;
Moderators
The Choice of Moderators for the debates, the first one scheduled on November 26th,is a bit wanting.
NTV's Linus Kaikai's perfomance was seen and can be evaluated during his Face to Face interview with Uganda's President Museveni.His choice of only soft questions did not only leave him at the mercy of the tough spoken President,but also made the president look like a great leader with outstanding qualities.
Jim Lehrer doesn't win a gold medal in the Obama-Romney debate two weeks ago,but his use of both hard and soft questions was remarkable.Well,Jim is no comparison to Linus,and it would be unfair to compare the two;Jim is a 78 year old veteran print and television journalist,with great experience and interest in politics and history and even served in the army.The 3rd October debate was the 12th President and Vice President debates he has moderated.Linus is a reknowned journalist and has great potential,but in 2007,grapevine had it that he was seeking for a parliamentary seat on a PNU ticket.
He also lacks the zeal,the passion and the energy to deliver an effective,interesting and productive debate. Infact,he is plain boring.This debate will need an energetic,charismastic person who will engage the participants as well as those watching at home,and keep them from slumber;Kenya is a working nation and sleep is inevitable!
Citizen's Julie Gichuru,on the other hand will be our own Candie Crowley.Candie is the second woman ever to have moderated a presidential debate,and is the first in over twenty years to do so.She has 25 years experience working for CNN,has a degree in English,was a stay-at-home mum for six years,has two grown sons,has been to all fifty American states through her work among others.Although she hasn't escaped criticism for being a Democrat sympathiser,this 63 year old woman is not,as she said,a 'fly on the wall'.She did her best to engage an 'American Wanjiku',hair stylist to mama mbogas in the debate.Julie would give Candie a run for her money,as we all remember her immense contribution towards the Kenyans for Kenya Initiave, but she may hasn't escaped criticism since she is rumoured to have been promised the government spokesman post by ODM.She is likely to be intimidated by the presence of some of the candidates.
If you ask my opinion of the best suited moderators,I would mention Jeff Koinange(worse than the two since he is related to Uhuru Kenyatta),Catherine Kasavuli or John Sibi-Okumu.
Cost
Not only will the debate be costly both in terms of money and time(There will be three debates prior to elections and a fourth one should there be a re-run),but less interesting due to the number of candidates.It will be easier to evaluate three candidates during a debate,and since the debates cannot be held in a day,there will be a lot of unfair advantages;first-movers and last movers advantages. The first candidates to be interviewed will be at a loss since their strategies,policies,etc are likely to be learned by ther adversaries,making them be better placed than the pioneers.This will therefore deny an equal footing to all the candidates,making it less interesting.
Candidates
The candidates are also an issue here;looking the nine or ten contestants,we can already tell how the debate will be.The goal of a presidential debate is to provide a challenging but not overheated medium of communication.With some of the presidential aspirants known for their personal differences,ours may not be an interesting one to watch;I personally hope I will not be hearing one candidate ask the other whether they think that Kenya is their mother's house!!!Some candidates are also boring,are prone to fall asleep during the debate(ninety minutes may be too much for them,we have seen them in parliament) and may lack the energy for a lively debate.
The last two debates have generated overwhelming feedback from Americans and the rest of the world.One outstanding thing in Americans is the way they give importance to the outside appearance(looks) of an individual.Our memory would be defined as short if we have forgotten what happened to Gabrielle Douglas,the 16 year old American girl who won double gold in artistic gymnastics in the London Olympics Games 2012,but received a backlash about her unkempt hair.Everything else was ignored;even the fact that she is one of the few American-African gymnasts to compete in Olympic Games and the first black woman ever to take the all-round individual title.
American(and almost all cultures now with globalization)is a superficial culture, and appearance does not just matter but is a MUST.Pretty hard to understand why the outside appearance of a person would be of more importance than the inside.
In the past two presidential debates,Americans have shown once again how short stints and one-minute instants matters to them while judging or evaluating a person.The elevator pitch,they would say; a first impression make a lasting impression.That is the reason why,in just one night of a dominated presidential debate,through rude interuptions,over-talking the moderator,telling lies while refusing to expose his real policies,Mitt Romney was able to convince Americans that he was the best placed man on earth to manage the land of milk and honey;by telling them what they wanted to hear,and not the truth.
The guy,I must admit is a smart debater,is handsome and charming and even looks years younger than the President,but his facts during the two debates were out of touch with the real world.But that,coupled with a higher word count on a shorter time,was enough to convince a nation that is a role model to many,including our nation,that Mitt is the guy to beat!
Pro-Obama's have come up to defend the President,supporting his underperfomance and branding it as a Masterplan,but I fail to see any strategy in it,and if there is one,it must be the wrong strategy.He kept his word,that he was not going to debate with Mitt,but to talk directly to the American people,but this just did him in,and made the Governor of Massachusetts look so empathetic with the middle income and low income earners.
As Kenya goes the American way in a month's time,I am not really enthusiatic about ourPresidential Debate.
Presidential debates have always been important game changers where tables are likely to be turned ;a good example is France,where the incumbent,Nicholas Sarkozy sacrificed himself by underestimating the strength of Francois Hollande,who according to Sarkozy,was incompetent and easy to manipulate, given his inexperience(he had never held a public office).But the flamboyant former President,a lawyer by profession,found himself on the defense as the less popular Hollande was on the offense,aggressively attacking him.That was how Sarkozy lost the May 2012 elections afte serving just one term.Obama,being a good friend of Sarko,should have learned a lesson from this.
Some of the reasons I am not looking forward to the Kenyan debate are among other;
Moderators
The Choice of Moderators for the debates, the first one scheduled on November 26th,is a bit wanting.
NTV's Linus Kaikai's perfomance was seen and can be evaluated during his Face to Face interview with Uganda's President Museveni.His choice of only soft questions did not only leave him at the mercy of the tough spoken President,but also made the president look like a great leader with outstanding qualities.
Jim Lehrer doesn't win a gold medal in the Obama-Romney debate two weeks ago,but his use of both hard and soft questions was remarkable.Well,Jim is no comparison to Linus,and it would be unfair to compare the two;Jim is a 78 year old veteran print and television journalist,with great experience and interest in politics and history and even served in the army.The 3rd October debate was the 12th President and Vice President debates he has moderated.Linus is a reknowned journalist and has great potential,but in 2007,grapevine had it that he was seeking for a parliamentary seat on a PNU ticket.
He also lacks the zeal,the passion and the energy to deliver an effective,interesting and productive debate. Infact,he is plain boring.This debate will need an energetic,charismastic person who will engage the participants as well as those watching at home,and keep them from slumber;Kenya is a working nation and sleep is inevitable!
Citizen's Julie Gichuru,on the other hand will be our own Candie Crowley.Candie is the second woman ever to have moderated a presidential debate,and is the first in over twenty years to do so.She has 25 years experience working for CNN,has a degree in English,was a stay-at-home mum for six years,has two grown sons,has been to all fifty American states through her work among others.Although she hasn't escaped criticism for being a Democrat sympathiser,this 63 year old woman is not,as she said,a 'fly on the wall'.She did her best to engage an 'American Wanjiku',hair stylist to mama mbogas in the debate.Julie would give Candie a run for her money,as we all remember her immense contribution towards the Kenyans for Kenya Initiave, but she may hasn't escaped criticism since she is rumoured to have been promised the government spokesman post by ODM.She is likely to be intimidated by the presence of some of the candidates.If you ask my opinion of the best suited moderators,I would mention Jeff Koinange(worse than the two since he is related to Uhuru Kenyatta),Catherine Kasavuli or John Sibi-Okumu.
Cost
Not only will the debate be costly both in terms of money and time(There will be three debates prior to elections and a fourth one should there be a re-run),but less interesting due to the number of candidates.It will be easier to evaluate three candidates during a debate,and since the debates cannot be held in a day,there will be a lot of unfair advantages;first-movers and last movers advantages. The first candidates to be interviewed will be at a loss since their strategies,policies,etc are likely to be learned by ther adversaries,making them be better placed than the pioneers.This will therefore deny an equal footing to all the candidates,making it less interesting.
Candidates
The candidates are also an issue here;looking the nine or ten contestants,we can already tell how the debate will be.The goal of a presidential debate is to provide a challenging but not overheated medium of communication.With some of the presidential aspirants known for their personal differences,ours may not be an interesting one to watch;I personally hope I will not be hearing one candidate ask the other whether they think that Kenya is their mother's house!!!Some candidates are also boring,are prone to fall asleep during the debate(ninety minutes may be too much for them,we have seen them in parliament) and may lack the energy for a lively debate.
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