Nairobi,KENYA: Findings of a recent survey by research company Infotrak indicate that Nairobi Senator Mike Mbuvi Sonko would retain his seat if Kenya went to cast the ballot today.
This is despite the fact that Sonko has expressed interest in Nairobi’s gubernatorial seat.
Nominated MP Johnson Sakaja came in second in the opinion polls days after he expressed hope of clinching the Senate Seat.
”During the survey conducted over the weekend, Sonko had 35.3 % popularity, Sakaja 25.9% , George Aladwa 9.9 % and Mutinda Kavemba 2.4%,” CEO Infotrak Angela Ambitho said on Thursday.
She added that when interviewing respondents 26.6% did not know or were undecided on who they would vote for the Nairobi Senate seat.
Nairobi Women Representative Rachel Shebesh is also headed for a re-election according to the opinion poll.
”36.7% supported Shebeshs return to clinch the seat, 12.8% associated themselves with aspirant Millicent Omanga , 2.6% Karen Nyamu, 3% Wangui Nganga, 3.5% Beatrice Kwamboka while 41.3% were undecided,” noted Mary Njoki from Infotrak.
She added that it would be easy for an aspirant to make a kill out of the undecided.
“The percentage of the undecided is worryingly large. In this case, an aspirant can take into account the needs of the undecided and wisely use them to woo a good crowd,”she advised.
The research also indicated that 44% of Nairobians would not vote back their Members of Parliament while 40% would re-elect the incumbent MP.
“12% were undecided while 3% refused to answer,” Ms. Ambitho remarked.
Ms. Njoki also noted with concern that for the MPs the number of the undecided was very small meaning that Nairobians already had in mind who they were ready to vote for in this position.
Meanwhile, Jubilee Coalition proved to be more popular amongst Nairobians with a 43.2 % popularity while 4 out of 10 believed in NASA.
7.6% did not associate themselves with any party, 6.2 % were undecided while 2.9 per cent refused to disclose their preferred affiliations.
“With the political temperatures rising every single day results of this opinion poll may vary from the final outcome of the August 8th ballot,”
Ms. Njoki cautioned.
A sample of 800 Nairobians were interviewed to represent the 2016 Nairobi county projected 2 million adult population.
