Photo Courtesy; Zubeida Koome
KTN news anchor Zubeida Kananu Koome has been picked as one of the moderators in the 2022 deputy presidential debates set for Tuesday, 19th 2022 that is set to take place at the prestigious Catholic University Of Eastern Africa (CUEA) main campus In Karen, Nairobi County.
The Presidential Debates secretariat revealed in d-day changes on Tuesday that Zubeida and her Citizen TV counterpart Francis Gachuri will moderate the debate.
The two journalists replaced Linda Alela of TV47 and John Jacob Kioria of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC).
The moderators, and the secretariat mentioned, were selected based on merit, among other things, endear the principles of impartiality, fairness, and objectivity, a strong understanding of the Kenyan political landscape and the major issues of the election.
“Under the rules of the presidential debates, the moderators will select the questions to be asked and shall not share the same with the candidates. They will not meet with any of the campaign teams or candidates and the candidates,” the secretariat said.
Sophia Wanuna of KTN and James Smart of NTV have been retained as moderators of the second debate which features candidates with a popularity of above 5 percent in three recent opinion polls. Citizen TV prime-time news anchor, Trevor Ombija, will moderate panel discussions for both debates.
Zubeida will get another opportunity to redeem herself following her heated exchange of words between her and Nairobi Senator and aspiring governor Johnson Sakaja.
The back and forth which served as fodder for conversation across the country on Monday, July 11 began when Sakaja was put to task regarding his degree saga, sparked by his opponent, Polycarp Igathe who claimed that his degree certificate from Teams University in Uganda was not legitimate.
Igathe then waded in by even questioning the integrity of the name ‘Sakaja’, as part of ascertaining whether it was his real name.
