Ruto Dismisses Latest Infotrak Opinion Poll Placing Raila Ahead as Fake

Deputy President William Ruto has dismissed the latest Infotrak opinion poll results ranking Raila Odinga as the most popular presidential candidate.

The survey released on Wednesday shows that Odinga, who is the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya coalition presidential candidate, would garner 9.3 million votes, representing 42 percent of the total votes cast, ahead of Ruto’s 8.4 million votes (38 percent). 

Infotrak CEO Angela Ambitho said 9,000 respondents from across all the 290 constituencies in 47 counties were interviewed during the survey conducted between May 23nd and 27th. The survey's margin of error was plus or minus one.

"What we see in this research is that the naming of the running mates had a great impact on the popularity of the candidates in some regions," said Ambitho.

Odinga, who is giving his fifth try at the presidency, leads in 20 counties while Ruto is more popular in 16. 

Infotrak said 11 battleground counties in Coast, Rift Valley, Northern and Western Kenya will decide who will be Kenya's fifth president. They include Tana River, Kwale, Lamu, Turkana, Narok, Kajiado, Samburu, Nakuru, West Pokot, Bungoma, and Trans Nzoia.

But speaking at a campaign rally in Mandera County, Ruto claimed that the results of the Infotrak survey were doctored in order to hoodwink Kenyan voters, insisting that he is ahead of Odinga in the presidential race.

Ruto, who is eyeing the presidency on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket, exuded confidence that he will trounce Odinga by big margin.

"Sasa kwa sababu wamekwama, system na deep state imekwama, manifesto yao imekwama; sasa wameenda kumanufacture opinion polls ati ya kusema wataendelea namna gani. Walisema NSIS, mara deep state, mimi nataka niwaambie, hawa watu tumewashinda kwa njia zote,” said Ruto.

"Tumewashinda na mpango na sera, hawana chochote, tutawashinda asubuhi na mapema tarehe tisa mwezi wa nane.”