MURKOMEN REVEALS RUTO’S REAL PERCENTAGE OF SUPPORTERS

Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen now claims that Deputy President William Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza coalition has been carrying out its own internal polls which rank their candidate ahead of his competitors.
Murkomen says Kenya Kwanza has about five independent pollsters which place DP Ruto above his main opponent Azimio la Umoja One Kenya flagbearer Raila Odinga at about 53 percent.

“We do our own internal polls and we have all the qualified pollsters, machines and everything… To be very fair, even the latest I have seen is 53 percent,” Murkomen said on Citizen TV’s News Night on Tuesday.

“We have also commissioned about five independent pollsters to do it for us that I am privy of and have rated us between 53 and 56 percent.”

While dismissing the recent public polls by InfoTrak, Ipsos and TIFA where Ruto was trailing Odinga, the senator alleged that the companies have been compromised to favour the Azimio flagbearer insisting that their own internal pollsters are credible.

Referring to the outcome of the 2017 elections where President Uhuru Kenyatta trounced the ODM leader, Murkomen questioned the companies’ credibility saying they had also rated Odinga ahead of Kenyatta days before the elections.

“In 2017, Uhuru was at 41% and Raila was at 53% but it was not the truth. We cannot say, because of the longevity, and the fact that they have done opinion polls for many years that they have credibility, in any case, they have never predicted any president,” said the legislator.

Homa Bay Senator, Moses Kajwang’ who was also on the platform brushed off the remarks by his Elgeyo Marakwet counterpart terming the ‘internal polls’ cited by Murkomen as a mere community-based census.

On his part, Kajwang who is allied to Azimio claimed that Odinga’s popularity was much more higher than what has been projected by the opinion pollsters.

“They have understated our ratings, we believe we are 50 plus one and unlike Kipchumba’s team that is doing an ethnic census to ascertain their positioning,” Kajwang said.

“We are not looking at the ethnic perspective where you are counting this tribe and lumping another tribe and saying that since we have this and that figure from this community then you are community then we have the entire country.”

Three pollsters have in their latest release ranked Azimio La Umoja One Kenya presidential candidate Raila Odinga ahead of his main challenger William Ruto with six days left before Kenyans go to the polls.

On Tuesday, August 2, 2022 Infotrak put Odinga ahead with 49 percent against Ruto’s 42 percent. On the other hand, IPSOS ranked Odinga ahead by six percent at 47 percent while TIFA said their figures had put Odinga ahead of Ruto in Nairobi and Kajiado counties.

The pollsters classified undecided voters at between 4 and 6 percent.