Majority of Kenyans will not be celebrating this festive season as they have traditionally done, a new poll has revealed.
The survey by Infotrak conducted on December 20 indicates that 60 per cent of Kenyans said they have no intention to celebrate Christmas and New Year festivities.
The poll, which interviewed adult Kenyans aged 18 years and above across all the 47 counties, shows that Kenyans who opted out of the festivities cited financial constraints as the primary barrier.
The survey said majority (86 per cent) of those interviewed cited lack of money as the dominant reason for not celebrating, cutting across all ages, gender, and regional divides.
"Rising costs of living are inhibiting the festive spirit, reflecting the
deepening economic challenges across households," the poll noted.
"Economic hardship is widespread, with Nairobi and North Eastern being the hardest hit at 100 per cent and 91 per cent respectively, compared to 83 per cent in the Rift Valley."
"Will you be celebrating this festive period as you have celebrated others in the past?" the question was put across to all the respondents.
The Infotrak study found that 10 per cent of the respondents said they won't be celebrating out of choice.
"I have no interest in celebrating this festive period," they said.
Another 6 per cent said they will be working, one per cent said they are Muslim while another one per cent said their denomination don't celebrate, they don't have a family to celebrate with, they feel unwell or they are thinking of school fees and books.
The survey was conducted across all the eight regions of Coast, North Eastern, Eastern, Central, Rift Valley, Western, Nyanza and Nairobi.
It had a targeted sample of 600 people but achieved 606 whose response was sought using quantitative interviews conducted through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI).
The survey had a margin of errorof ±4.001 per cent at 95 per cent degree of confidence with 96 per cent response rate.
The sample distribution was proportionately representative of the target population - Coast with a population of 2.3 million had 54 samples; North Eastern with one million population had 30, Eastern (3.9m - 90); Central (3.4m - 80), Rift Valley (6.6m -153); Western (2.5m - 58); Nyanza (3.2m - 74) and Nairobi (2.9m - 67).
