Ipsos: Raila inches closer to Uhuru in race to State House

Presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta (left) and his running mate William Ruto. (Photo: Beverlyne Musili, Standard)

A survey by Ipsos shows 48 percent of Kenyans would vote for President Uhuru Kenyatta if elections were held today while his close rival Raila Odinga would get 42 percent of the votes.

The survey released on Tuesday morning shows that the NASA flag bearer Raila is inching closer to President Uhuru in the race to State House.

According to the survey, Raila's chances of winning have increased by 12 percent to 42 percent.

The survey reveals that majority of Kenyans, at 71 per cent, say that the country's is heading in the wrong direction. This figure is more among NASA supporters who were interviewed with 91 per cent saying the country is going the wrong way. 

The new figures, compared to a previous release in February have shown that though President Uhuru's popularity has somewhat remained stable - with a marginal increase of one per cent while his competitor in the Opposition has strongly gained ground.

In the survey released in February, President Uhuru had a 47 per cent advantage against Raila.

At the time, Raila had 30 per cent preference as a presidential aspirant under the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) while President Uhuru had 47 per cent and Kalonzo had 13 per cent.

However, in the latest survey released Tuesday, the formation of NASA and having co principals Musalia Mudavadi and Kalonzo Musyoka step down for Raila seem to have paid off.

The 12 per cent increase, Dr Tom Wolf Ipsos Lead Reasercher explained has also been brought about by majority of NASA supporters making up their minds.

"NASA seems to have succeeded in putting their votes in one basket that were previously in many baskets. However, it has to be noted that President Uhuru's numbers have not gone down either," said Wolf.

Wolf noted that while it is known that President Uhuru won the previous election with 50 per cent plus one, it is not clear why his popularity still staggering at the same level despite being incumbent with all the development projects witnessed.

"One would expect that their prevalence should be 70 per cent," said Wolf.