Premium

49 per cent Kenyans believe Karua will attract more votes for Raila than Rigathi will for Ruto

Raila Odinga's running mate Martha Karua and DP William Ruto's running mate Rigathi Gachagua.

About half of Kenyans feel Martha Karua will draw more votes for Raila Odinga in Central Kenya than Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua will draw for William Ruto.

In the latest TIFA poll commissioned by the Standard Group, 49 per cent of Kenyans say the former Justice Minister will attract more votes for Raila compared to 30 per cent who said Rigathi will attract more votes for Deputy President William Ruto from the region.

The telephonic survey was conducted between June 25 and June 30, 2022, across nine zones: Central Rift, Coast, Lower Eastern, Mt Kenya, Nairobi, Northern, Nyanza, South Rift and Western where a total of 1,533 respondents were interviewed with a margin error of +/- 2.34 per cent.

In the survey, 21 per cent of the respondents said they do not know if the two candidates would attract more votes for both Raila and Ruto.

According to the survey, while 80 per cent of Raila Odinga's supporters agree that Karua will attract more votes from the Mt Kenya region, only 59 per cent of Ruto supporters said Rigathi will pull more votes from the same region for Ruto.

Some eight per cent of Raila's supporters said Rigathi was likely to pull more votes for Ruto compared to 22 per cent of DP's supporters who said Karua would pull votes for Raila.

Another 21 percent of Raila Odinga supporters said they do not know compared to Ruto's 18 per cent.

Concerning gender, 54 per cent of males said Karua will attract more votes compared to Rigathi's 44 per cent.

While 34 per cent of women said Karua was a force for Raila, only 26 per cent said Rigathi was the best bet for Ruto.

In terms of age, Martha Karua enjoys 49 per cent support of the demographic aged between 18 and 24 years and those above 35 years while Rigathi enjoys 29 per cent of those aged 18 and 24 and 31 per cent of those aged above 35 years.

From the entire Mt Kenya region, 43 per cent of the respondents support Rigathi compared to Karua's 37 per cent.

While 50 per cent of the respondents from Central Rift said Rigathi will pull more votes, only 27 per cent said Karua would while 23 per cent said they are not sure.

On the other hand, 69 per cent of respondents from Nyanza and 64 per cent of respondents from Western are confident that Martha Karua will attract more votes for Raila.

Karua further enjoys 60 per cent support in Nairobi, 58 per cent in South Rift, 56 per cent from lower Eastern, 48 per cent from the Coast and 35 per cent from the Northern region.

Rigathi enjoys 10, 25,24,23, 19, 19, and 37 per cent respectively from the same regions.

With regards to if the two presidential candidates had alternative running mates, 30 per cent said Kirinyaga's Anne Waiguru would be a better alternative to Ruto compared to 7 per cent and 5 per cent for Karua and Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika respectively.

Some 38 per cent said Wiper's Kalonzo Musyoka would be a better alternative for Raila and 26 per cent for Peter Kenneth.

Mombasa's Hassan John and Agriculture CS Peter Munya had five and three per cent confidence respectively as the best alternatives for Raila.

In the same survey, 83 per cent of the respondents said Kenya is going to have a woman as the deputy president compared to 78 per cent who had the same view in March.

While 81 per cent said Kenya will someday have a woman as the Speaker of the Senate, 78 said a woman would be the Speaker of the National Assembly and 61 per cent said a woman would be appointed as the head of the military.

Overall, 72 per cent of the respondents said Kenya will soon have a woman president. This had increased from 42 per cent who had the same view in March.