On Tuesday, July 19, the 2022 presidential running mate debate was held at the Catholic University for East Africa (CUEA) main campus.
The debate was split into two, the first group saw Roots Party presidential candidate George Wajackoyah’s running mate Justina Wamae face off with Ruth Mucheru Mutua who is the running mate to David Mwaure Waihiga of the Agano Party.
The second tier comprised Deputy President William Ruto’s presidential running mate Rigathi Gachagua and Raila Odinga’s 2022 presidential running mate Martha Karua.
Research by the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) has revealed that more than 34 million Kenyans followed the recently held deputy presidential debate.
According to the findings, released on Friday, July 22, the majority of Kenyans watched the second debate.
“70 percent of the 34 million watched the second debate pitying Martha Karua and Rigathi Gachagua while 30 percent watched both debates,
“A paltry 5 percent watched the first debate pitying Justina Wamae and Ruth Mutua,” the Media Council said in a statement seen by Kivumbi.co.ke.
According to the findings, only 18.5 million registered voters watched the debate organized by the Media Council of Kenya, the Media Owners Association, and the Kenya Editors Guild.
The survey was conducted a day after the debate and targeted Kenyans above 18 years from all counties and used Assisted Telephonic Interviews where a sample of 1,245 respondents with a confidence margin of 95 percent was polled.
According to a study, Citizen TV of the Royal Media Services dominated the viewership.
“In terms of TV viewership, the findings further indicate that 67 percent watched the debate on Citizen TV followed by Inooro TV and NTV at 8 percent each, while KTN and KBC came third at 7 percent each.”
On radio platforms, Radio Citizen had most of the listeners at 41 percent followed by Ramogi FM and Radio Jambo each at 7 percent.
MCK Chief Executive Officer David Omwoyo however cautioned media houses against conducting opinion polls before, during, and after the presidential debate slated for Tuesday, July 26.
Omwoyo said the councils noticed that politicians were using computer tricks to influence poll results in their favor as was the case during the presidential running mate debate where Gachagua was polled ahead of Karua.
“While online consumption of media content is increasingly becoming critical, we are cautioning Kenyans to beware of manipulation deliberately pushed by purveyors affiliated to the various political competitors. We noticed a spike in the number of bots participating in online conversations around the debate,” Omwoyo stated.
