Poll: Voters would reject most MPs

More than half of the current Members of Parliament would lose their seats if an election was called today, a new opinion poll shows.

Conversely, six out every 10 Kenyans approve of the performance by Parliament during this year manly because of the role MPs played in unearthing corruption and passage of the new Constitution.

The Infotrak poll released Thursday found that 56 per cent of Kenyans would not vote back their current MP while 16 per cent were not sure about how they will vote.

It means that the number of current MPs who would not make it parliament could rise in the upwards of 70 per cent if the undecided segment of voters decide to vote with the majority who will not re-elect their MPs.

This compares well to the previous statistics that have shown that 70 per cent of MPs will not get back to Parliament, said Infotrak managing director Angela Ambitho.

“Increasingly, Kenyans are taking notice of the important role that their parliamentarians play in enacting good laws that ensure sustainable democracy and development,” said Ms Ambitho.

“Owing to the live transmissions of parliamentary proceedings, wananchi (Kenyans) are now not only able to better understand the dynamics in parliament, but more importantly determine the efforts and performance of parliament as a whole and the members of parliament more specifically,” she added.

According to the respondents, they were unhappy with parliament for engaging in corruption thus their main cause for aggravation and such a harsh warning to the members.

They indicated that they disapproved the corrupt practices of certain MPs. The polls show that 53 per cent, or more than five out of every 10 Kenyans believe the MPs engage in corruption.

Another 21 per cent indicated that their disapproval of the MPs emanated from the delays in passing bills in the House whilst 16 per cent mentioned that legislators are not development conscious.

Other reasons given for the unhappiness with the MPs given by respondents stem from the perception that they are selfish and only seem to think of their own interest (11%), that MPs do not address pressing issues like the IDP problem (9%), that MPs are captives of their tribal cohorts (3%) and the feeling that legislators do not attend parliamentary sessions on a regular basis.

According to the polls, Central Kenya voters gave the highest approval rating for parliament at 73 per cent followed by Nyanza (65 per cent), Coast and Western (62 per cent each).

Eastern delivered the harshest judgment on parliament in 2010 with 55 per cent unhappy with its performance followed by North Eastern (49 per cent), Nairobi (45 per cent) and Rift Valley (41 per cent).

But for those Kenyans who were happy with the performance of Parliament (60 per cent), majority are satisfied with the culture growing in the House that embraces the fighting of corruption not only within the executive, but also in various public institutions.

More than a third of the respondents (36 per cent) take cognizance of the fact that Parliament was instrumental in passing the new constitution while another third feel that the legislators have passed bills that will cater for the wellbeing of the common man.

“They also like the fact that currently, motions in parliament are exhaustively debated, and the overall quality of debate is impressive,” said Ms Ambitho.

Kenyans also appreciate the legislators’ commitment in unearthing and solving past misdeed like the Artur brothers’ saga and the Ouko murder among others.

“Over and above this Kenyans are satisfied that MPs seem to be consulting across the coalition divide,” the pollster says.

But individual MPs will be worried by the reaction by Kenyans to vote most of them out at the next election expected to take place in 2012.

Western MPs will be the most worried after 57 per cent of respondents said they would not vote back their MPs while their North Eastern counterparts will survive with only 19 per cent unhappy with their current MPs.

Other provinces that MPs face a backlash from voters are Eastern (56 per cent), Nyanza (54 per cent), Central (53 per cent), Nairobi (51 per cent), Coast and Rift Valley (43 per cent each).

The poll also follows another one last week in which two-thirds of Kenyans said they would not vote for any of the six people named as the masterminds of the post election violence in 2007/2008 if they were to run for president.

Two out of those named by ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo harbour presidential ambitions namely Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto

Others in the list are cabinet ministers Henrry Kosgey, head of public service Francis Muthaura, Postmaster General Major (rtd) Hussein Ali and radio journalist Joshua arap Sang.

In addition, Kenyans also expressed their displeasure with MPs when they refused to pay taxes on their huge salaries and allowances this year as stipulated in the constitution.