President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee hits low
marks in survey
National approval of the Jubilee Government
appears to be plummeting, with the latest
opinion poll revealing that most Kenyans think
the country is heading in the wrong direction.
And the media remains the most trusted
institution at 68 per cent, higher even than
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s approval rating of 53
per cent, in the same opinion poll released
yesterday by Ipsos Synovate.
The study has come at a time Uhuru’s
administration continues to battle rising
perception that it is unfriendly to the media and
non-governmental organisations and is doing too
little to stem the growing cost of living and
insecurity.
The survey reveals that as many as six out of 10
Kenyans (or 64 per cent) believe the Jubilee
Government is taking Kenya the wrong way.
That is a whole two-thirds of the people sampled
in the survey. Only a minority (29 per cent) said
things are going in the right direction. Among
issues seen to be sinking the approval ratings of
the eight-month old Jubilee regime are its failure
to address the high cost of living, corruption in
government, greed among elected leaders and
the increased incidences of insecurity.
participants
in the
survey were
asked what
they liked
least about
the Jubilee
regime,
three out of
10 (35 per
cent) said
the Uhuru
and Ruto-
led team
has failed to address the high cost of living, while
17 per cent pointed to alleged corruption in
government. INSECURITY CHALLENGE Twelve
per cent of participants in the survey saw the
insecurity challenge as an unsolved issue.
It is only in Central Kenya where the President
enjoys support, with most respondents (54 per
cent) polled saying the country is heading in the
right direction. But a significant minority (37 per
cent) in the same region said things are not so
rosy.
Surprisingly, some of the strongest disapprovals
are from Rift Valley, the backyard of Deputy
President Ruto, with half the people polled (52
per cent) saying the country is heading in the
wrong direction. Ruto’s United Republican Party
( URP) is in the ruling Jubilee coalition that
included Uhuru’s The National Alliance party.
Some in URP are said to be unhappy with the
manner in which jobs in government are being
dished out, saying Rift Valley has gotten a raw
deal despite URP being a key player in Jubilee.
Not surprisingly, the strongest disapproval came
from Nyanza, the home ground of former Prime
Minister and Uhuru’s main political rival, Raila
Odinga, with an overwhelming 89 per cent
respondents stating the country is going in the
wrong direction. Other areas where Jubilee
received the strongest disapproval ratings
include Coast (85 per cent) and Western (78 per
cent), both strongholds of CORD as
well as Nairobi (72 per cent) and North Eastern
(68 per cent). Most people (62 per cent) in
Eastern also believe things are heading in the
wrong direction. Even worse, more than half of
those polled in the survey (52 per cent) believe
the Jubilee government has done “nothing”
during the time it has been office. That figure is
significantly higher than those who believe that
free maternal healthcare is a key achievement
(30 per cent) of the Jubilee regime. COST OF
LIVING Asked about the most serious problems
facing the country currently, Kenyans surveyed
cited high cost of living, lack of employment
opportunities, crime or insecurity and corruption
in that order.
“As the rate of inflation has continued to creep
up since June this year, the big increase in
concern with this issue is seen between
November 2012 and November 2013,” said
Synovate’s Research Analyst Tom Wolf while
releasing the results yesterday.
Kenyans also cited leadership wrangles in Jubilee
due to cases in the International Criminal Court
as being as serious as tribalism in the country,
followed by the threat of terrorism. Among the
things that some Kenyans like about the Jubilee
government is the free maternal healthcare in
which expectant mothers don’t pay delivery fees
in public health facilities.
They also like the youthful or energetic
leadership of President Kenyatta and his Deputy
William Ruto as well as other elected leaders The
opinion poll was done on the first nine days of
November through face-to-face interviews of
2060 Kenyans across the country.
The margin-of-error attributed to sampling and
other random effect of this poll’s sample size is
+/- 2.2 with a 95 per cent confidence level. When
participants were also asked to rate 23 public
institutions and officials in terms of how much
trust they have in them. Nine out of 23 of those
obtained higher scores in terms of distrust
compared to trust.
Among the best performing institutions in the
trust index is the media (68 per cent) followed
by a distant second by the Kenya Defence Forces
(32 per cent), whose credibility took a serious
beating after they faced claims of mishandling
the security operation against the attackers of
the Westgate Shopping Mall in September this
year.
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