Toiny Gachoka, a show host at KTN has dismissed assertions that Deputy President William Ruto will comfortably beat ODM leader Raila Odinga.
While Ruto has announced his bid to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila has remained tight-lipped about his next course of action.
Gachoka of the famous Point Blank show, on Friday insisted that Raila will beat Ruto easily outside the Rift Valley region.
Gachoka further says Raila has encroached Jubilee strongholds following the support by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
"RailaOdinga votes even without Jubilee spill-over are well known. Ruto outside Rift Valley is no match for Baba. Recent By-elections 3; Kibra & coast Ruto was thumped. Uhuru has switched his Jubilee support to Baba," he tweeted in reaction to a tweet by lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi.
However, a survey by Kantar (formerly Research International) conducted last week shows that Ruto is the most preferred successor to Uhuru.
According to the survey, Ruto will score 40 per cent to Raila Odinga's 16 per cent if elections are held today. Of the respondents, 25 per cent are undecided.
"The current DP receives the support of more than one-third for the presidency in 2022, but this proportion is still considerably lower than the actual votes he would have to receive for a first-round win (50% plus 1 vote)," the pollsters say.
"What will happen to these figures after additional candidates emerge (whether or not the Constitution is amended, or relevant legislative changes) is anyone’s guess. But for now, the Deputy President stands in ‘pole position’," the pollsters say.
Kantar says that it collaborated with renowned political polling researcher Tom Wolf, formerly of Ipsos, who designed the questionnaire and analysed the data. The poll was conducted among 1,203 adults between November 6 and 16.