The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party has rejected opinion polls that declared Deputy President William Ruto more popular than former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
While in the company of DP Ruto during his Murang'a tour on Sunday, November 22, the leaders led by Garissa Township Member of Parliament, Aden Duale accused the government of sponsoring the polls stating that they were intended to favour the ODM party leader.
In the opinion poll released by Trends and Insights For Africa (TIFA) research company on November 19, Ruto dropped in popularity by one percent despite maintaining the lead at 38 percent. Raila's popularity on the other end grew from eight percent to 23 percent.
During the Murang'a rally, Duale went ahead to claim results of the opinion polls were published without sufficient data to make the poll credible.
"Do not waste your time with fake sponsored opinion polls by people we know are in the deep state, in business circles, and are fabricated when people are playing golf,"
"For us, we are going to the people on the ground especially the businesswomen and bodaboda riders," Dulale stated.
Additionally, the legislators claimed that the research firms were being compromised by the government whose agenda they stated was to influence people’s perception of Raila’s presidential bid.
"Just because they have been given money, they are now claiming that Raila Odinga is making strides in the Mount Kenya region," South Mugirango MP, Silvanus Osoro alleged.
His sentiments were echoed by his Kikuyu counterpart, Kimani Ichung’wa who maintained that there was no way the ODM party was gaining popularity in the vote-rich region given the number of leaders supporting the DP.
"Kiambu is 100 percent behind the deputy president and the UDA party," the legislator claimed.
However, Ruto distanced himself from the discussion. Instead, he focused on urging the politicians in Mount Kenya to fold their outfits and join UDA.
According to the polls by TIFA, UDA was the most popular party at 30 percent, ODM at 16 percent, Jubilee at 5 percent, while Wiper, KANU, FORD-K, and ANC were all at one percent.
