Ipsos has released another poll, and it has not been received well by both sides.
In the poll released by Tom Wolf yesterday, nearly 48% of Kenyans would vote for President Uhuru Kenyatta if the elections were held today, slightly over 5% more than Raila Odinga who polled at 42%. 8% remain undecided while 1% said they will not vote.
The survey showed that the NASA flag bearer has gained a great deal in the last few months, though it can be argued that his complete lineup was still unclear then. In the last poll, 30% said they would vote for him.
The same poll that finds Uhuru still ahead, found that 71% of Kenyans feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. Among NASA supporter, this figure is 91%.
This however does not seemingly have a huge bearing when it comes to the choice of presidential candidate.
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The poll has showed that Uhuru’s support has remained relatively stable. It should be good news for Jubilee supporters, but not so fast.
Some of those commenting online claim it is a useless statistic as ”Raila has been campaigning for 5 years”. Or that Raila’s perceived big gain is just as a case of adding votes from the new NASA members.
NASA supporters on the other hand feel that this is another piece of ‘State House propaganda’, and that the truth is that Raila is way ahead of Uhuru. Most are citing the ‘mood on the ground’. Others said that the same pollsters lied to the likes of Clinton and Kabogo that they would win.
But Suna East MP Junet Mohamed made perhaps the most astonishing statement. ”Ignore this ipsos nonsense. Tom Wolf lost the science of polling the day he was locked up by Lucy in a loo at state house,” he tweeted.
All in all, we’ve known for some time it will be a tight one. Now that the official campaign period has started, we will be keen to see what strategies both sides will employ. It will mostly be interesting to see how Jubilee will conduct their campaigns, having been on the defensive for the last 4 years.
But the battle for the undecided voters will get hotter.
