A latest opinion poll by Pollster TIFA has ranked Deputy President William Ruto as the most preferred presidential candidate at 38.7 per cent against ODM leader Raila Odinga’s 27 per cent.
The poll released on Thursday shows that Ruto’s popularity rating remains unchanged since the last poll in November.
However, Raila’s increased by 4 per cent.
Some 20 per cent are undecided while 10 per cent of the respondents did not answer.
Ruto’s popularity in the Mt Kenya region is now at 49 per cent against Raila’s 20 per cent.
Some 16 per cent in the region are undecided.
The poll shows that Ruto has lost four points in Central while Raila has gained by the same margin in the region.
The survey was conducted after two major political events happened in the last three months.
Raila announced he would contest the presidency in August and after Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetangula joined forces with Ruto.
“These are two events that have relatively affected our results,” said.
Despite Musalia and Wetangula joining Ruto, Raila gained in Western Kenya by 10 points while Ruto only rose by 2 points.
The poll was conducted between February 3 and 9. 26 per cent of the respondents did not support any party.
Ruto’s UDA party is the most popular party with 35 per cent followed by ODM at 24 per cent.
ODM’s popularity has doubled from 12 per cent in June 2020.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party has a popularity rating of 4 per cent down from 41 per cent in 2020.
Wiper has 2 per cent while ANC and Ford Kenya have a per cent each. The poll sampled 1,541 respondents.
The poll also shows that 70 per cent of the DP central rift backyard used to support another party while Central Kenya has 59 per cent having shifted party allegiance.
14 per cent of UDA supporters were initially in ODM while 72 per cent were in the ruling Jubilee.