The polls showed 47 percent of Kenyans would vote for the Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka coalition while 41 percent will vote for Uhuru Kenyatta-William Ruto ticket in the presidential elections.
Should Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi be the Jubilee alliance presidential candidate and Eldoret North MP William Ruto his running mate, then Cord coalition will beat them at 48 percent to 38 percent.
In overall individual presidential popularity, PM Raila still commands a lead with 34 per cent rating followed by Uhuru at 27 per cent, DMP Mudavadi emerged third at 5 per cent while planning assistant minister Peter Kenneth is fourth at 4 per cent.
Vice President Kalonzo has 3 per cent, Ruto 2 per cent while Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua has 1 per cent, with the polls showing that 22 per cent of Kenyans are still undecided up from 12 per cent a month ago.
Raila and Uhuru gained by one per cent each from the same poll conducted in November this year while Kalonzo and Ruto dropped from 8 and 9 per cent respectively in the same month to stand at 3 and 2 per cent this month.
Wolf attributed the drop in Ruto and Kalonzo’s popularity rating to the assumption that both will end up being running mates. Ruto has sealed a deal to be the running mate in Jubilee alliance whereas Kalonzo who is widely believed to be the PM’s running mate.
However, the support does not seem to have automatically gone to the perceived presidential candidates but rather to the undecided category.
“Their supports appear to have adopted a wait and see attitude before choosing where to belong. And for politicians, much needs to be put in place to woo this category of undecided which rose from 12 per cent in November to 22 per cent this month,” Wolf added.
When asked of their awareness of the current political alliances, 85 per cent mentioned the Cord alliance with another 80 per cent mentioning the jubilee alliance. 22 per cent of the respondents mentioned the Peter Kenneth/Raphael Tuju alliance while 11 per cent are ware o9f the Eugene Wamalwa, Cyrus Jirongo and Nicholas Biwot alliance.
The level of awareness for the two main alliances jubilee and Cord stood at 91 to 83 per cent in Central, 75 to 86 per cent in Coast, in Eastern it’s at par 84 per cent, in Nyanza (74 to 92), North eastern (85 to 88), Nairobi (84 to 85), Rift Valley (86 to 83) while Western it stood at (81 to 88).
The survey found t that 93 per cent of Raila’s supporters approve the Cord alliance while 73 per cent of Kalonzo supporters also approve it. In Jubilee, Uhuru, Ruto and Mudavadi supporters approve their alliance at 94 91, 68 per cent respectively.
This comes as both alliances prepare to name their presidential candidates next week with jubilee’s set for Tuesday while Cord will unveil their line up on Saturday.
- The Standard
