It will be covered live on eight television channels and 34 radio stations in Kenya; Google will stream the event online and the international media agencies CNN and Reuters will relay it in full. It’s a first for Kenya and a first for Africa: all is in place for tonight’s “Presidential Debate 2013”.

SIX CANDIDATES TAKING PART

Six presidential candidates will appear in the debate staged in the auditorium of the Brookhouse International School in Nairobi: Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila Odinga, Musalia Mudavadi, Martha Karua, Peter Kenneth and James ole Kiyiapi.

The media coverage starts at 7.00pm and the debate itself at 7.30pm, lasting for two hours.

DEBATE OVER TWO ROUNDS

The debate will be divided into two halves. The first half will cover issues of governance, social services, health, education, security and resources management. The second will concentrate on the economy, devolution and foreign affairs.

RULES OF THE DEBATE

The rules for the debate have been laid down and agreed. Each candidate will have 30 seconds to introduce themselves and two minutes each to answer each question put to the candidates by the moderators.

The candidates will debate in front of an audience but the latter will not be allowed to clap, cheer, jeer or display signs.

THE MODERATORS

The moderators for the first round of the debate will be NTV’s managing editor Linus Kaikai and Julie Gicheru from Royal Media Services. The second round’s moderators will be KTN’s Joe Ageyo and Royal Media’s Uduak Amimo.

ORGANISERS DESERVE CREDIT

It’s easy to be cynical about politics and the media in Kenya but the Kenya Forum thinks the organisers of the Presidential Debate 2013 deserve to be given credit where it is due for arranging this debate. We are not aware of a similar debate taking place anywhere in Africa before, so Kenya leads the way! We hope it will be a great success and help Kenyan voters make an informed decision come election day.