Deputy President William Ruto’s close allies have dismissed recently released polls showing that the ODM leader Raila Odinga has overtaken Ruto in terms of popularity ahead of the August 9 General Election.
In an exclusive interview with The Star Newspaper on Wednesday, March 16, Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua said the polls are not a true representative of facts on the ground.
According to Gachagua, the polls were just but a deliberate campaign to rate the former prime minister highly so as to sway public perception that he is ahead.
“Those are doctored polls planted to project Raila as the leading presidential candidate and shore up the public perception that he is the man to beat. That is not true,” Gachagua told The Star.
The vocal lawmaker opines that Deputy President William Ruto has been receiving defectors from other parties a clear indicator his candidature is more popular on the ground than Railas’
“Over the last few months, Kenya Kwanza has been consistent and focused, enjoying high-level defections. It would therefore be illogical and pedestrian to even think Raila can overtake us with three or four percent,” He added.
On his part, Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi took to Twitter to point an accusing finger at the deep state, saying they are behind the polls.
The outspoken legislature without stating the actual percentage said that DP Ruto is ahead of the ODM leader by 24 percent.
“This is not The Star Kenya authoring this newspaper, it’s the deep state doing their routine work…. They are bitter because we are ahead of them by 24 percent,” Sudi wrote on Twitter.
The sentiments by Ruto allies come after Radio Africa Group released their monthly polls on Wednesday, March 16, showing that Raila had dethroned Deputy President William Ruto to become the most preferred presidential candidate according to the latest monthly opinion polls.
According to the polls shows 47.4 percent of respondents would vote for Raila as the president if elections were held today, compared to Ruto’s 43.4 percent.
Further, the polls, showed that the ODM leader is comfortably ahead of DP Ruto in 6 out of the 8 former provinces.
