Trends and Insights For Africa (TIFA) research company has released the results of a new study detailing the popularity of various political parties and presidential aspirants as of the month of November.
The Deputy President and United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party leader, William Ruto, topped the charts with a popularity of 38 per cent, with Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party leader, Raila Odinga, coming second at 23 per cent.
Amani National Congress leader, Musalia Mudavadi, comes a distant third with 2 per cent, Wiper Democratic leader Kalonzo Musyoka 1 per cent, KANU’s Gideon Moi 1 per cent, while all other presidential candidates shared 4 per cent.
The study also indicated that 23 per cent of the Kenyan people were undecided by the time the study was conducted, while 10 per cent chose not to respond.
However, Ruto’s influence seems to have slightly declined, with Odinga’s increasing by a huge margin between the months of June and November.
Ruto’s popularity decreased from 39 per cent to the current 38 per cent, while Odinga’s increased from 8 per cent to 23 per cent.
On political party influence, leading the pack was UDA with 30 per cent, ODM 16 per cent, Jubilee 5 per cent, while Wiper, KANU, FORD-K and ANC were all at 1 per cent. 46 per cent of the people interviewed stated that they were not affiliated with any political outfit.
UDA was also depicted as the most evenly distributed across various parts of the country, closely following was ODM and Jubilee that were more concentrated in Nyanza and Mt Kenya respectively.
Kenyans also expressed their thoughts on candidates with the biggest presidential potential, with Fred Matiang’i and Alfred Mutua topping the list. Matiang’i stood at 22 per cent, Mutua 18 per cent, Wycliffe Oparanya 12 per cent, Hassan Joho 8 per cent, Peter Kenneth 8 per cent, Martha Karua 3 per cent, Mwangi wa Iria 2 per cent, Babu Owino 2 per cent and Kivutha Kibwana 2 per cent.
More than half of Kenyans also felt that the country was heading in the wrong direction (59 per cent) while 19 per cent stated that the country was heading towards the right direction.
A tranquil atmosphere characterized by peace and security, good leadership and improved infrastructure are some of the reasons Kenyans felt that Kenya was heading in the right direction.
On the other hand, the high cost of living topped as the parameter that Kenyans used to perceive that the country was headed towards the wrong direction. Other factors included unemployment, poor leadership and political divisions.
