By MUTINDA MWANZIA

Prime Minister Raila Odinga is the most preferred Presidential candidate if elections were held today, a joint survey released by two pollsters reveals.

The survey by Infrotrak Harris and Strategic Research and Public relations gave Raila a 46 and 44.8 percent ratings respectively as the preferred presidential candidate.

Infrotrak Chief Executive Officer Angela Ambitho said the joint release of the polls was due to the fact that the survey was done on similar dates.

" We realised that the findings may be very similar since the questions asked were also nearly similar thus the need to release the findings jointly," said Ambitho who was flanked by Strategic’s CEO Caesar Handa.

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi was rated as Raila’s most preferred running mate at 43 percent followed by Martha Karua and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka at 12 and 10 percent respectively.

On Saturday, Infotrak placed Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta as the second most preferred presidential candidate at 15 percent followed by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka at 10 percent, Karua at 8 percent and William Ruto at 7 percent.

Water Minister Charity Ngilu, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi, Assistant Peter Kenneth and Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa all tied at one percent in the presidential ratings.

Running mate

Ambitho said it was interesting to note that Raila’s rating at 46 percent was more than the combined tally of Uhuru, Kalonzo and Ruto, which totaled 32 percent of those surveyed.

Kalonzo was found to be Uhuru’s preferred running mate at 34 percent followed by Ruto at 29 percent.

Uhuru was polled as the most preferred running mate for Kalonzo at 42 percent followed by Ngilu at 14 percent.

If Ruto runs for the top seat the poll showed that Uhuru was his preferred running mate at 46 percent followed by Kalonzo at 20 percent and Raila at 11 percent.

Interestingly more males at 52 percent endorse Raila’s presidency compared to females at 39 percent.

Surprisingly, more females at 11 percent compared to males at 8 percent would prefer Kalonzo as the country’s president.

"I don’t know why more female respondents prefer Kalonzo. I don’t want to speculate,"said Ambitho.

Raila had majority of his supporters in rural areas at 52 percent compared to 42 percent support in urban areas.

The PM’s main support was recorded in Nyanza at 84 percent followed by North Eastern, Western, Coast and Nairobi at 63, 60, 51 and 50 percent respectively.

Raila’s support was low in Central at 23 percent followed by Eastern and Rift Valley at 29 and 31 percent respectively.

Uhuru enjoyed his main support in Central province at 29 percent with his lowest being in Nyanza at 2 percent.

Emerge victorious

Raila according to the Infotrak poll emerged as the most trusted politician at 44 percent followed by Uhuru, Kalonzo, Karua and Ruto at 10,9,9 and six percent respectively.

Regionally, Raila was most trusted in Nyanza at 83 percent, Uhuru in Central at 24 percent, Karua in Central at 22 percent, Kalonzo in Eastern at 30 percent and Ruto in Rift Valley at 8 percent.

Raila emerged as the most trusted presidential candidate by youth, those aged below 35 years and those above 50 years.

Strategic research on its part showed that Raila would emerge victorious if polls were held today with 44.8 of the respondents supporting him.

Uhuru was ranked second at 17.1 followed by Kalonzo, Ruto and Karua at 10.5, 8.7 and 6.3 percent respectively.

Mudavadi according to strategic emerged as the most popular vice president at 25 percent followed by Uhuru and Karua at 13,8 and 10 .8 percent respectively.

Handa said based on County support, Raila emerged top in Kisumu County at 80.8 percent, Kalonzo 44.8 percent in Machakos County, Uhuru 51.8 in Kiambu County and Ruto 59.7 in Bomet County.

Strategic sampled 2,412 people in thirty counties using face to face interviews between January 23 to 25.

Infotrak on its part sampled 1500 respondents in 19 districts countrywide.