Raila narrows gap with Uhuru as election draws near

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition Chief Raila Odinga are in a tight race for the presidency, a new poll suggests. The poll by Infotrak shows that if elections were held today, Uhuru would win by 48 per cent against Raila’s 43 per cent.

Eight per cent Kenyans are still undecided, 38 days to the general election that will take place on August 8. Jubilee is also the most popular party at 47 per cent as compared to NASA’s 43 per cent.

On June 8, the African Electoral Observation Group reported Uhuru would be re-elected with 51 per cent of votes if the general elections were held that day. Raila’s support at that time was 39 per cent. The survey further found that 50 per cent members of the public feel the country is headed in the wrong direction.

See Also: Lady security guard who forced Matiang’i to queue at airport fired

The poll was conducted in 29 counties with a sample size of 2,000. On Thursday, a research by Twaweza East Africa found nearly half of Kenyans believe the country is not very democratic. Only one in every eight Kenyans (12 per cent) thinks democracy is being practised to a large extent while four in every 10 (40 per cent) believe it’s only being practised to a small extent.

Some 5 percent of those polled did not to disclose their affiliation, 3 percent remain undecided while another 3 percent do not identify with any party. The poll was conducted in 29 constituencies to represent the 290 electoral areas across the country using household computer assisted personal interviews.

Related: Luo man who sold land begins campaign for Uhuru

A sample of 2000 respondents to represent 19.6 million registered voters was interviewed, translating into a margin of error 2.2 at 95 percent degree of confidence. The survey also found that half of Kenyans (50%) feel the country is headed on the wrong direction, while 45% feel the country is in the right trajectory.

Central Kenya had the highest approval of the country’s direction route with 80% feeling Kenya is on the right direction, followed by North Eastern at 79%.  However, majority in Nyanza (67%), Coast (66%), Nairobi (60%), Western (59%), and Eastern (52%) feel the country has lost direction.

Rift Valley however has a divided opinion with 49% feeling the country is on the wrong as opposed to 48% who think it’s on the right.

[crp]