Image: The-Star
The majority of Kenyans believe that President William Ruto won the August 2022 Presidential elections, a new TIFA poll shows.
"William Ruto in fact, received the most votes compared to Raila Odinga (48% vs. 37%)," the poll released on Thursday shows.
Tifa however notes that the split on this issue between President Ruto and Odinga voters is stark, with nearly equal numbers expressing the view that he did or did not achieve this (75 percent vs 71 percent).
Similarly, Tifa highlights the fact that about the same proportion of those who say they voted for Odinga are not convinced that he won indicates that Azimio claims that his election was ‘stolen’ have not (yet?) been entirely convincing even among his supporters.
The poll had a ±2.12% margin of error.
The data was collected after the research firm conducted face-to-face interviews at the household level.
The interviews were conducted in 9 regions; Central Rift, Coast, Lower Eastern, Mt Kenya, Nairobi, Northern, Nyanza, South Rift, and Western.
The interviews were conducted in (mainly) Swahili and English.
On August 15,former IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati declared William Ruto the President-elect after he defeated Raila and two other candidates in the August 9 poll.
Ruto garnered 7.1 million votes, while Raila Odinga garnered 6.9 million votes.
However, Raila Odinga rejected the results terming them "null and void" and promised a bruising battle at the Supreme Court.
He filed a petition at the Supreme Court challenging Ruto’s win but the petition was dismissed.
The Supreme Court confirmed Ruto's victory in the August 9 election.
Reading the verdict of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Martha Koome said Ruto garnered 50 per cent plus one vote cast required for one to be announced the winner.
Raila Odinga who was Azimio's Presidential candidate said that the possibility of death and bloodshed from post-election violence and fear of International Criminal Court (ICC) charges compelled him to accept Ruto’s disputed win.
