President Uhuru Kenyatta (right) and his Deputy William Ruto at the launch of Jubilee party manifesto at Kasarani Sports Centre in Nairobi on June 26,2017. A new poll by the Star newspaper puts Uhuru ahead of Raila by 9%. [Photo: nation.co.ke]
President Uhuru Kenyatta would beat Nasa presidential candidate Raila Odinga hands down if elections were held today.
He would, however, not gather enough to go back to State House, therefore forcing a run-off. More than 50% plus one of the total votes cast is required to avoid a run-off.
A new opinion poll conducted by the Star newspaper and released on Tuesday indicates, that Uhuru would win with 48 percent while Raila would come second at 39 percent.
The Star says the poll was conducted in 28 counties sampled from the former eight provinces.
"The survey was done through Computer Aided Telephone Interview between May 3-14, with 3,430 respondents over 18 years old in the counties. The poll carries a 1.7 percent margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level," writes the Star.
In May, a similar poll by the newspaper's research department had put Uhuru at 49 percent, while Raila was at 40 percent.
The newspaper reports that the number of undecided voters increased by two percentage points from 10 percent to 12 percent between May and the date of the latest poll.
"This is interesting, considering there are only 41 days left to the election.Some 59 percent said they would vote for Uhuru because of his development record, while 15 percent said they prefer Raila’s development agenda.
"Many respondents (42 percent) would vote for Raila due to his agenda to develop the economy, while 21 percent would vote for Uhuru for the same reason," adds the poll findings published in the Star.
The poll, however, suggests that Raila would beat Uhuru in terms of creation of employment, fighting tribalism and dealing with insecurity at 10.5 percent, 3.3 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.
The survey comes a day after Jubilee launched its manifesto while Raila is expected to launch his later on Tuesday.