Trends and Insights for Africa (TIFA) on Monday released its latest poll regarding the impeachment motion against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua conducted between October 1 to October 4, just a few days before the Public Participation exercise.
Significantly, polls varied depending on the regions queried especially in the Mount Kenya region where results highly contradicted the rest of the country, with most of them siding with the DP and citing various reasons backing their stance.
At the top of the board, 36% of the residents declared that Rigathi was being attacked unfairly and did not deserve to face all the allegations laid against him.
18% of the respondents did not see a flaw in the performance of the DP over the past 2 years in office, saying that his leadership was good and that he was generally an honest person.
The third reason his supporters cited for the reason they were against the impeachment was the fact that the President/Deputy President duo was elected together and should therefore stick it out and finish their term as a team.
Further solidifying this opinion was the 7% who felt that if their Mount Kenya kingpin had to go, then the president had to go as well because the duo was elected under one ticket.
The fifth reason why the majority of the region’s population opposed the impeachment motion was that 6% of them believed that the Deputy President deserved forgiveness and a second chance.
Other reasons offered in the polls were; that no clear reason had been given for his impeachment, it would affect national stability, and he had Mt Kenya community support with each of them having a 4% support base.
Some 3% stated that the impeachment is a side-show distracting attention from key national matters and 1% believed that his impeachment would not make any difference in the country. An astonishing 2% remain undecided.
Overall, a total of 69% of Mt Kenya residents are against the impeachment motion which is almost twice the national average which is 38%.
Taking into effect the entire country, however, Kenyans are quite divided over the current effort to remove Gachagua from office, with only a 3% difference between those in support and those against it which is 41% for the former and 38% for the latter.
As for Mt Kenya residents who are in support of the motion, they stand at 20% which is yet another clear contrast from the national 41%.
