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For three months President William Ruto’s overall performance rating has been on a downward trend having dropped from a mean grade of C in March to a D in May, a new opinion poll conducted by InfoTrak has shown.

President Ruto’s average score in May was 46 per cent having dropped six points from March’s score of 52 per cent.

His deputy Rigathi Gachagua also dropped six points from 48 per cent in March to 42 per cent in May to maintain a mean grade of D.  

The survey which was conducted between May 23 to 29, 2024 targeted 1700 respondents from eight major regions and involved quantitative interviews which were done through computer-assisted telephone interviews.

“To rate the performance of Ruto, Gachagua and the cabinet, respondents were asked their views on four key areas namely communicating to Kenyans on what they were doing at the time of the survey, ability to deliver on their assigned roles, addressing issues affecting Kenyans and success on improving how things are done in their office. They were to rate the performance of the Presidency on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is excellent and I is extremely poor,” Infotrak Research Manager Johvine Wanyingo stated.

On communicating to Kenyans about the work he was currently doing, 30 per cent of the respondents representing the majority gave Ruto an average score, while a similar number rated Gachagua as a poor communicator of his work to the public.

Approximately 33 per cent rated the President’s competency as average based on his ability to deliver on his roles while the majority of the respondents amounting to 34 per cent rated his Deputy’s competency as poor.

On addressing issues affecting Kenyans, Ruto was given an average score by 30 per cent of the respondents while Gachagua also graded poor by 31 per cent of the respondents.

Average performance

Under the improvement in the way things are done in their respective offices, 28 per cent of the respondents rated President Ruto poor similar to Deputy Gachagua who rated under the same grade by 32 per cent of the respondents.    “A single-digit percentage of the respondents of between 4 and 8 per cent gave Ruto and Gachagua an excellent score under the four criteria. The entire cabinet had an average performance score of 45 per cent,” Wanyingo added.

Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki maintained an improved streak of performance after attaining a mean rating of 60 per cent to score a B up from 59 per cent during his first 10 months in office.

His Sports counterpart Ababu Namwmba came a distant second with 52 per cent to tie at a mean grade of C with Defence CS Aden Duale.

Environment CS Soipan Tuya, ICT CS Eliud Owalo and Tourism CS Alfred Mutua were the top five best-performing ministers tying at a score of D in a list that also had Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Education CS Ezekiel Machogu.

Public Service CS Moses Kuria, Cooperative CS Simon Chelugui, Labour CS Florence Bore and Energy CS Davis Chirchir attained a rating of below 43 per cent while Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi scored an E of 39 per cent to trail the list of five worst-performing ministers

Shockingly, the rate at which Kenyans are losing confidence in key public institutions and the opposition is alarming.

During the three months under review, the Judiciary lost 21 points from 67 per cent in March to 46 per cent in May dropping from a mean grade of B to D while the Parliament both National Assembly and the Senate lost 11 points from 53 per cent to 42 per cent and dropping from a mean grade of C to D.

The opposition has also been rated poorly after losing 15 points from 62 per cent to 47 per cent in the period under review dropping its B grade in March to D in May.