50 percent of voters would vote for Uhuru if elections were held today—Ipsos

Raila Odinga at a rally. Latest poll predict he will trail in election if it were held today.

NAIROBI—President Uhuru Kenyatta leads Opposition leader Raila Odinga in latest opinion with Jubilee leading in the traditionally Corded areas of the country.

The pollster attributed the finding to Uhuru’s incumbency and the opposition’s lack of a single candidate eight months to the General Elections.

The poll by Ipsos predicts that President Uhuru would scoop 50 per cent of the votes, way ahead of Cord leader Raila Odinga, who trails him in second place at 22 per cent.

The survey also revealed that Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka would come third with two per cent of the total votes  followed by Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi with 1%.

The poll conducted between December 17 and 19th found that 16 per cent of the poll  participants were undecided on which  candidate to vote for.

Seven percent of the respondents said they would not name their favourite presidential candidate.

The poll is likely to cause debate because some of the regions that is predicted to vote for Jubilee among them Coast and Western are understood to be pro-Cord.

Tom Wolf, the lead researcher at Ipsos blamed the shifting support on President Uhuru and his incumbency status.

“Do not underrate the power of incumbency because it is a very powerful tool,” Wolf stated after he was hard-pressed to explain the situation.

“Mr Kenyatta has also been traveling a lot across the country launching infrastructural projects and this could be bearing fruits.”

On the other hand, Wolf said supporters of the Opposition were undecided on who to vote for if elections were held today. He explained that while Uhuru is recognised as the Jubilee flagbearer, the Cord coalition has three presidential candidates in its ranks.

The poll has a margin of error of error of +/- 3.1 per cent with a 95 per cent confidence level. The margin of error is attributed to sampling.