Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy
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Poll: Kenyans ready to vote for women
"Political parties in Kenya should use opinion polls more actively to formulate their campaign strategies and to enhance political debate amongst the voters", Ms Njeri Kabeberi, Executive Director of CMD-Kenya, said at the launch of an opinion poll about voting behaviour of the Kenyan public on 7 August 2007.
The poll, which was carried out between 27 July and 2 August, is part of the efforts by CMD-Kenya to enhance public participation in the forthcoming general elections and to build the capacity of the Kenyan political leadership to appreciate and use opinion polls as a tool for informing political strategies and general political discourse. In the past, politicians have tended to either ignore or out rightly rubbish opinion polls.
Willing to vote for women
A key finding of the study indicated that most (51%) of the Kenyan people are ready and willing to vote a woman candidate. Health Minister Charity Ngilu scored highest with as the most preferred female candidate with 61%, followed by ODM-K Presidential aspirant Ms Nazlin Umar with 12%.
However, the country is still hesitant to translate their positive disposition towards women into presidential votes as only 2% of the poll’s 2,400 sample indicated they would vote Charity Ngilu as president.
A majority (42%) preferred President Mwai Kibaki for presidency followed by Raila Odinga with 25%. Kalonzo Musyoka scored third with 11%; William Ruto scored 6% while Charity Ngilu and Najib Balala tallied at 2% each.
Curiously, none of the presidential candidates met the required 25% votes in five provinces. In fact, the results confirmed that ethnicity continues to dog the country with all leaders largely drawing their support from their tribal backyards.
Unhappy with current MPs
The parliament received the worst score card. The poll indicated that only one out of ten of the current MPs stand a chance for re-election. The majority of the polled population indicated they would not re-elect their current MP. 80% of the Kenyans said they were unhappy with the current leaders due to corruption while 74% were unhappy because their MPs were power hungry. Most Kenyans said they would elect leaders who are transparent, democratic, trustworthy, popular and patriotic.
The survey is an initiative of CDM-Kenya in conjunction with Infotrak Research & Consulting and Harris Interactive Global.
