• Raila Odinga and William Ruto are the top two candidates in Kenya’s presidential election.
• The main rival, Uhuru Kenyatta, can’t run again and has backed his deputy over him.
• News comes after Ruto’s communications director sent a letter to the debate organisers on Thursday.

Raila Odinga, one of Kenya’s two top presidential candidates, will not take part in an upcoming debate, his campaign team said on Sunday. They accused his main rival, Uhuru Kenyatta, of trying to avoid talking about things like corruption.

Odinga, who used to be prime minister and is now 77, and Deputy President William Ruto, who is 55, are the top two candidates in the presidential election on August 9.

But in a statement saying that Odinga would not attend Tuesday’s debate, a spokesman for his campaign said that Ruto was trying to avoid talking about important issues.

Ruto “has demanded that the debate not focus on corruption, integrity, ethics, and governance — the key existential questions that Kenya faces,” Odinga’s spokesman said in the statement.

“Any debate devoid of these questions would be an insult to the intelligence of Kenyans. That is why we do not intend to share a national podium with a person who lacks basic decency,” he added.

The statement says that Odinga will instead take part in a televised town hall meeting with “ordinary Kenyans” in an eastern part of the capital city of Nairobi.

The news came after Ruto’s director of communications sent a letter to the debate organisers on Thursday.

It said that he was “ready to answer any question and speak to any matter that arises during the debate” but it also said that his presence was “contingent” on some things.

The letter said, “We expect that the moderators will allocate equal time to issues affecting Kenyans and equally allow candidates a fair opportunity to address them,”

“To that end we wish to know in advance the number of minutes that will be allocated to respective interventions including, but not restricted to governance and integrity, agriculture, healthcare, MSMEs and manufacturing, housing, the digital economy, foreign policy, and so on and so forth,” it continued.

President Uhuru Kenyatta can’t run again, and after a fight with his deputy of nine years, he has backed Odinga over him.