President Kenyatta returned to Kenya from The Hague on Thursday Oct 9. Photo/ FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 15 – A study released by Ipsos Synovate on Wednesday indicates that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision to appear before The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) on October 8 significantly boosted his approval ratings with 87 percent of those polled supporting him.
The study carried out through mobile phone interviews between Saturday and Monday shows that public confidence in him has risen sharply from 43 percent in August to 71 percent last week.
Sixty-seven percent of the 1,669 respondents polled were however of the opinion that the Kenyan government should increase its co-operation of the court while 56 percent do not support a pullout from the Rome Statute, “whether either Uhuru Kenyatta or William Ruto is convicted or not,” the findings read.
A majority of those polled, 58 percent, are also of the opinion that Deputy President William Ruto should continue to attend his trial at the ICC in the event that President Kenyatta’s case is dismissed.
Ruto’s confidence rating also benefited from an upsurge growing from 43 percent to 62 percent with that of Attorney General Githu Muigai, who represented Kenya at the ICC before President Kenyatta’s appearance, have also increased significantly from 19 to 48 percent with confidence in Cabinet Secretaries growing from 17 to 42 percent.
As can be expected, President Kenyatta and his government were rated higher by those who identified themselves as Jubilee supporters than from those who identified with the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD).
“Twice as many Jubilee supporters, (90pc) stated having “a lot of confidence” in the President compared to CORD Supporters, (44pc),” the Ipsos report reads.
But an almost equal number of both Jubilee and CORD supporters, 89 and 88 percent respectively, supported his decision to honour the ICC summons despite his being a sitting head of state.
Kenyans drawn from either political divide, Opinion Poll Manager Victor Rateng reported, also polled equal support for better pay for teachers and health workers.
“It seems that Kenyans believe that they can only receive better services in education and health if the welfare of the service providers therein is improved,” he stated with between 78 and 82 percent supporting their calls for higher wages.
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