A recent opinion poll released on Tuesday by Trends and Insights For Africa (TIFA) has placed the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition’s presidential candidate Raila Odinga ahead of the pack in Nairobi County.

Raila leads the poll with 50 per cent while his major rival of the Kenya Kwanza Alliance William Ruto comes in second at 25 per cent.

The Roots Party presidential candidate George Wajackoyah comes in third at 7 per cent.

George Wajackoyah. PHOTO/COURTESY

"If elections were to be held today Raila Odinga will lead in Nairobi County with 50% followed by William Ruto with 25% and George Wajackoyah in the third position with 7%," TIFA said.

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18 per cent of all those people who were interviewed remained undecided on their preferred candidate.

The most recent TIFA poll also showed that Raila had a 9 per cent gain compared to May when he had a 41 per cent lead, while Ruto has a 1 per cent drop from the 26 per cent he had over the same period.

According to TIFA, the popularity gap of both ODM and Azimio is also reflected in the support distribution for the main presidential candidates, with ODM’s Raila Odinga at twice the level of UDA’s William Ruto (50% vs. 25%)

In the Nairobi gubernatorial race, Kenya Kwanza’s gubernatorial aspirant Johnson Sakaja is slightly ahead of Azimio Coalition’s Polycarp Igathe who is narrowing the gap at 40 per cent against 32 per cent, respectively.

Johnson Sakaja and Polycarp Igathe. PHOTO/COURTESY

TIFA suggests that party identity has very little importance in the directions voters are likely to take in the August polls.

“Regarding the gubernatorial and senatorial contests, the former is now a much closer race than it was two months ago, with Senator Johnstone Sakaja of UDA only slightly ahead of his main opponent, Jubilee’s Polycarp Igathe (40% vs. 32%), a fact that suggests how little is the importance of party identity itself to many would-be voters,” TIFA said.

The TIFA poll showed that ODM’s Edwin Sifuna’s popularity rating is three times that of UDA’s Bishop Margaret Wanjiru at 27 per cent against 9 per cent. 

However, nearly two-thirds of Nairobi residents representing about 64 per cent are still undecided about this race rendering it too early to make a call.

Edwin Sifuna and Margaret Wanjiru. PHOTO/COURTESY

TIFA conducted the polls on June 20, 2022, via the telephone with all the 632 respondents registered as voters.

According to TIFA, the pall had a margin of error between -3.8 per cent and +3.8 per cent.