IF the election were held today, incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta would still defeat NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga, a Star survey indicates.
In the opinion poll, Uhuru is ahead with 48 percent while the opposition chief trails him at 39 percent.
In May, a similar poll by the newspaper's research department had put Uhuru at 49 percent, while Raila was at 40 percent.
The Star poll was conducted in 28 counties sampled from the former eight provinces. It 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.
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 General 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.
Raila would beat Uhuru in terms of creation of employment, fighting tribalism and dealing with insecurity at 10.5 per cent, 3.3 per cent and 2.1 percent, respectively.
The survey is likely to leave Raila and his advisers pondering their strategy at a time when he has been going flat out to portray Uhuru as an unpopular candidate.
Raila is this morning expected to unveil his manifesto containing the development agenda his alliance has in store for Kenyans.
Yesterday, President Uhuru unveiled an eight-key pillar reelection manifesto in an aggressive scramble for the 19 million registered voters against Raila.
Buoyed by what his strategists call “a four-year Jubilee success story”, Uhuru and Deputy President William Ruto, who rode to State House on jumbo pledges, hope to reinvent themselves to parry a sustained opposition onslaught.
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