Poll: Kenyans want ministers to resign

A majority of Kenyans want besieged Agriculture minister William Ruto to resign to pave way for investigations over his possible involvement in corruption, an opinion poll shows.

The survey by Steadman Group released Monday and carried out between February 18 and February 20, when Mr Ruto survived a censure motion in Parliament, showed that 56 percent of the respondents wanted the minister to step aside.

According to the poll 71 percent (719 people) of 1012 people interviewed said yes to this question: “Do you think there are any cabinet ministers who should resign now in order that investigations about their possible involvement in corruption can be investigated?” Of these, 56 per cent asked Mr Ruto to resign.

Twenty-one percent of the 719 people said Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi should resign and Mr Amos Kimunya (Minister for Trade, seven per cent).

Only three percent of the respondents who supported the resignations said Prime Minister Raila Odinga should resign while two percent asked Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs Minister Martha Karua whose docket involves fighting graft to quit.

Steadman lead researcher Tom Wolf, however, agreed the polls failed to state, seek specific reasons or the corruption cases that should make the five ministers to quit.

“We didn’t ask why the ministers should resign since the interviews were done by telephone.”

He added that the poll was not a national sample.

Fifty-one percent of ODM supporters interviewed, Dr Wolf said, wanted Mr Ruto to step aside compared to 63 percent from PNU.

Twenty-one percent of ODM supporters said Mr Murungi should resign compared to PNU’s 19 percent.

Thirty-four percent of the 1,012 people did not suggest any name of ministers that should resign.

Mr Ruto has been on the spot over alleged irregular allocations of maize from the National Cereals and Produce Board that has contributed to increased maize flour costs and worsened the food shortage facing the country.

The Eldoret North MP, however, successfully marshalled support from fellow MPs to defeat a censure motion against him in Parliament moved by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale.

Although Mr Odinga has not been directly mentioned in the scandal, he is on record saying he had sacked his aide over alleged involvement.

Mr Murungi has been at pains to explain a Sh7.6 billion oil scandal involving Triton company that has resulted to high fuel prices.

On his part, Mr Kimunya’s return to the Cabinet last month was criticised by some politicians, civil society and religious leaders who argued that he was yet to be given a clean bill of health over the Grand Regency Hotel (now Laico) sale saga, disposal of Safaricom shares, privatisation of Telkom and a cash printing tender by De La Rue during his watch at Treasury.

On Ms Karua’s case, some politicians and civil society leaders have expressed concern over slow pace in fight against graft and the recent revelations that the British Fraud Office had halted investigations over the Anglo Leasing scandal due to lack of cooperation from Kenyan authorities.

Ms Karua’s critics say since the judiciary which has been blamed slowing the pace against graft falls under her docket, she should also be held accountable.

The Steadman findings indicate that it is the PNU supporters (78 percent) who had a higher level of desire to fight graft than ODM (71 percent).

The polls showed that a majority of Kenyans (54 percent) want the Grand Coalition to serve its full term. However, only 31 percent of the respondents felt the coalition will serve until 2012.

Apart from bringing the post-election violence to an end, 70 percent of Kenyans felt the Coalition had not achieved anything.

Education leads in the achievements at eight percent, post-election violence (6), delivery of services (5), national reconciliation, food security and distribution of relief (3 each), fight against corruption and poverty alleviation (2 each) while improvement of security, economy, distribution of resources and health scored one percent each.

Thirty-three percent of those interviewed believed the government was committed to resolving fire safety and disaster preparedness, 29 percent (post-election violence), maize scandal (27 percent) oil pricing (24) and extra-judicial killings (20).

Only a third of those interviewed believed any political or business leader responsible for organising or supporting the post-election violence will ever be convicted of the crime whether through formation of a local tribunal or at the International Criminal Court. PNU supporters were the most optimistic (39 percent) compared to ODM’s 31.

Asked if they thought the Kenyan economy was likely to improve as a result of Obama being the US President, 44 percent said it will register very little change, 31 percent (somewhat), while 25 said (a lot).

The polls showed that ODM was still the most dominant party in the country although its support had dwindled from 53 percent in July last year to 38 percent.

PNU and its affiliates is still second at 23 percent, down from 29 percent while Kanu only enjoys two percent support.

Thirty-seven percent of those interviewed did not want to be identified with any party.

It is the first time that Steadman was using its newly installed Computer Assisted Telephonic Interview (CATI) to carry out its research. It involves calling people aged and above 18 whose phone numbers the firm has in its data base for the interviews.

The respondents are chosen through random sampling.

In the survey, 25 percent of the respondents were from Rift Valley, 16 (Nyanza), 14 (Eastern), 13 (Central), 11 (Western), 9 (Coast), 8 (Nairobi) and North Eastern (4).