By Mary Mwendwa
With only three months to the much anticipated General Elections to be held on the 8th of August in Kenya, much preparation is being done to ensure that the conversation will be centered around Facts and Figures that are data driven.
As announced by the Chairman of The Presidential debate and CEO of Royal Media, Wachira Waruru,”We in the media continue to keep Kenyans and the world updated on the ongoing political campaigns as well as all other developments related to the General Election.”
Adding “As part of our duty and contribution to a successful election, we are pleased to announce today that we, national broadcasters, have once again come together to organize televised presidential debates ahead of the general election.”
In the drive to ensure that data does take a primary role in the forthcoming Elections, a partnership between Association of Freelance Journalists (AFJ), Strathmore University and ESRI East Africa have come together to provide a research component for the Presidential Debate 2017.
The research will include mining and wrangling the data and analyzing it in formats that will be user-friendly and understandable to the Wanjiku.
This year the Presidential Debate will host two debates with the candidates and one debate will host the running mates of the Presidential candidates.
President of the Association of Freelance Journalists, Winnie Kamau noted “It is a turning moment for the country as Journalists and Media houses will now have data that will drive the stories” adding “We will look at issues from a point of facts and figures with the Election data playing a key role in the debate and even beyond the debate”
The debates will be aired on all TV, Radio stations and online platforms across the country giving the electorate an opportunity to evaluate the respective positions of the eight candidates on key national issues.
The first debate will be held on the 10th of July at 7:30 pm, while the second debate will be held on the 17th of July and the final one will be held on the 24th of July all this will be held at Catholic University of East Africa.
The themes and guidelines are currently under discussion by the Committee. Some of the expected outcomes is powerful visualizations of the data and training of the Journalists who will be covering Elections.
Wachira noted the participation of the citizens was key “In conducting these debates we are committed to entrenching a culture of civilized discourse between those who aspire to various positions of leadership and particularly the Presidency. “
