Raila Overtakes Ruto in the Latest Opinion Poll After Picking Karua as Running Mate

Azimio La Umoja coalition presidential flagbearer Raila Odinga has overtaken his main challenger Deputy President William Ruto in the latest opinion poll by Trends and Insights Africa (TIFA).

The study placed Odinga’s popularity at 39 percent after picking Nark-Kenya party leader Martha Karua as his running mate in the August 9th presidential election.

Ruto, who settled on Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua as his running mate, trails Odinga at 35 percent while Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka comes a distant third at two percent.

TIFA lead researcher Tom Wolf indicated that Odinga’s popularity grew by 7 percent since the last survey while Ruto’s approval ratings dropped by 4 percent to 35 from 39 three weeks ago.

The survey was conducted on May 17th, a day after Odinga unveiled Karua as his running mate, and two days after Ruto picked Gachagua. A total of 1,719 respondents from across the country were interviewed via phone in a poll TIFA says it funded on its own.

The participants were picked from regions subdivided as Central Rift, Coast, Lower Eastern, Mt Kenya, Nairobi, Northern, Nyanza, South Rift, and Western, and divided based on the population.

The poll indicates that the Azimio La Umoja coalition is popular in five zones while Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza Alliance enjoys popularity in four zones.

“Note numbers of voters in zones is very different, so this doesn’t reflect on who the winner is,” Wolf said during a media briefing on Wednesday.

Azimio is the most popular alliance at 38 percent, followed by Kenya Kwanza at 28 percent, OKA at 3 percent, while the undecided stands at 31 percent. The survey also shows that Odinga still popular among older Kenyans.