Thursday, April 20, 2023 –It has emerged that at least 12 percent of William Ruto’s supporters who voted for him now believe he rigged himself into office.
In new research findings delivered on Thursday April 20 morning,12 percent of the Kenyans who voted for President William Ruto in the August 9, 2022 General Elections now believe he lost to his rival, Raila Odinga.
Trends and Insights for Africa TIFA has released the findings that also indicated that 75 percent still believe he won the race while the remaining are stuck in between.
On the other hand, 14 percent of declared Raila Odinga voters believe that UDA Party’s Ruto won the election while 71 percent believe he did not. The remaining Raila supporters are not sure.
Averagely, 48 percent of all Kenyans believe that Ruto won the election while 37 percent believe that the sitting President rigged himself into office.
The remaining 15 percent of Kenyan voters are not sure who, between Raila and Ruto won the presidential election.
“Among those who claim to have voted for either of the two main 2022 presidential contenders, only a modest plurality believe that the officially declared winner – William Ruto – did, in fact, receive the most votes (48% vs. 37%). However, the split on this issue between Ruto and Odinga voters is stark, with nearly equal numbers expressing the view that he did/did not achieve this (75% vs. 71%),” TIFA said.
According to the same research, 52 percent opined that opposition MPs should work with the government for development to succeed. 41 percent want the opposition MPs to remain “stong” in the opposition, while the remaining seven percent did not favour any side.
32 percent of Kenya Kwanza supporters want opposition MPs to remain loyal to their parties while 62 percent want the MPs to join government side.
On the other side, 54 percent of Azimio supporters want their MPs to remain in the opposition while 40 percent want them to join government.
However, while larger majorities of Kenya Kwanza supporters and Azimio supporters take these opposing positions, neither of these reach the two-thirds mark, suggesting how divided supporters of these coalitions are even among themselves on this matter.
TIFA also established that 48 percent of Kenyans not affiliated to any political party want opposition MPs to work with the government while 35 percent in this category want the MPs to remain in the opposition. 17 percent were either not sure or had no opinion on the same.
According to the fresh data, it is clear that these numbers mean a lot in the ongoing talks between the opposition and the government.
Hitherto, Odinga with his troops believe Ruto rigged himself into power through digital manipulation of the electoral systems.
