President Uhuru Kenyatta’s TNA is the most popular political party beating former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ODM to second place.
Deputy President William Ruto’s URP comes in third according to a survey by Strategic PR firm released on Friday.
A majority of those polled in the survey carried out from January 22, 2014 to January 24 also said they would vote for President Kenyatta if elections were held at the time.
Fifty four per cent of the respondents said they would vote for Mr Kenyatta, 34 per cent would not vote for him and 12 per cent had not made up their minds, according to the results which did not indicate if the respondents were asked about other presidential candidates.
This is the first time that TNA has overtaken ODM in popularity.
The poll showed that support for the International Criminal Court process was waning with a majority of the respondents saying criminal cases against President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto should be ended.
“Kenyans see the cases as a distraction to the President and his deputy, preventing them from providing the much needed service to Kenyans,” Strategic said in a statement accompanying the poll results.
Most poorly
The survey, which interviewed 2,471 people in 36 counties, did not, however, present a totally rosy picture of the President and his deputy as the respondents said they were concerned about the economy, insecurity, unemployment and corruption.
Asked what was the most serious issue facing the country, 21.7 per cent said the economy, 18.3 per cent cited security and 13.2 per cent quoted unemployment.
Asked to identify the area where the government had performed most poorly since it came to power, 31.1 per cent cited security besides the cost of living, taxes and youth employment.
At county level, many of the respondents said they wanted their governors to tackle unemployment, construct better roads and deal with insecurity although it is a function of the national government.
The survey rates the media as the best performing institution ahead of civil society organisations and the presidency. Respondents also rated senators higher than governors, Parliament and the police in terms of performance.
“The sample was distributed at constituency level with consideration to age, gender and education,” said Caesar Handa of Strategic Africa at the Silver Springs Hotel where he released the findings.
The counties with the most responses in favour of President Kenyatta were Nyandarua at 96 per cent, Elgeyo Marakwet at 93 per cent and Kiambu at 88 per cent.
Those with the most responses against him are Migori at 80 per cent, Kisumu and Siaya at 78 per cent and Kilifi at 49 per cent. They cited unfulfilled promises, poor governance and tribalism. Eight out of every 100 said they disapproved of him because of the ICC cases.
According to the survey, four per cent of the respondents felt that the most important issue facing the country was the ICC trials.
Most of the respondents said they were more satisfied with the way Deputy President Ruto’s case had been handled at the ICC, compared to President Kenyatta’s.
Some 43 per cent of those polled were satisfied with the way the ICC had handled the case against President Kenyatta, while 50 per cent expressed dissatisfaction.
These results were mirrored against the response on Deputy President Ruto’s case; 50 per cent were satisfied and 43 per cent were dissatisfied.
ICC
Some 61 per cent said the ICC cases should be dropped in view of the fact that the ICC prosecutor had said she did not have adequate evidence to try President Uhuru.
An analysis of the response as to whether or not the ICC cases should be dropped showed that the county with the highest positive response was Kisumu County at 79 per cent, followed by Siaya County at 75 per cent then Migori County at 68 per cent.
Further on the ICC trials, 58 out of 100 people polled agreed that the trials were a waste of time and resources and that the ICC did not have a credible cases against President Kenyatta.
Some 62 per cent said the trials would only be successful if they led to the conviction of the suspects.
Opinion was split on whether the ICC trials were simply opening up old wounds from the post-poll chaos. Fifty five per cent agreed with this statement, adding that the country was sufficiently healed following the violence while 45 per cent disagreed.
Away from the ICC trials, 17 per cent of those polled felt that there had been no major achievement of the government since the elections.
Some 13 per cent and 11 per cent of those polled cited improved infrastructure and free maternity care as major achievements. Only two per cent felt that the economy had improved.
Areas where the respondents felt the government should prioritise and urgently address were creating jobs (24 per cent), improving security (19 per cent) and addressing the high cost of living (11 per cent).
Health-related matters and devolution were of least priority.
At the county level, constructing better roads was among the top three areas of priority together with unemployment and insecurity.
