Most of Raila Odinga’s declared 2022 voters support Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua‘s impeachment as compared to President William Ruto’s voters, a new study by TIFA has shown.
According to a report released by the firm on Monday, October 7, 2024, 54 per cent of Raila’s declared 2022 voters support Gachagua’s impeachment while 29 per cent oppose the plans. 17 per cent of the opposition leader’s supporters remained neutral.
On the other hand, only 34 per cent of Ruto’s 2022 voters supported the impeachment plans while 45 per cent opposed the plans. 22 per cent of Ruto’s voters remained neutral on the issue.
Most Kenyans (78 per cent) are aware of the current effort to remove DP Gachagua, with even more of the residents of the Mt Kenya region aware of this (86 per cent).
Overall, Kenyans are quite divided over the current effort to remove Gachagua from office by impeachment, with only a slight plurality in support of it (41 per cent vs 38 per cent).
According to the report, the most frequent reason for supporting the DP’s impeachment (by those who do so) is his perceived discriminatory attitude and speech in favour of his own (Mt Kenya) community (35 per cent).
Poor performance and bad leadership emerged as the second-most featured reason (20 per cent) by those supporting Gachagua’s impeachment.
However, a considerable proportion who favour his impeachment could not offer any reason for doing so (17 per cent).
On the other hand, those opposing Gachagua’s impeachment faulted the many charges laid against him in the National Assembly’s impeachment motion.
Most of those opposing the impeachment plan (36 per cent) feel that he is being attacked unfairly. Others (18 per cent) say that his leadership style/performance has been good.
The third most frequent reason is that both Gachagua and President William Ruto should be allowed to finish their current term.
