Majority of Kenyans are satisfied with the country’s democratic space, this is according to recent Afrobarometer survey.
The survey findings released today also revealed that most Kenyans still live under fear of violence as the country heads to the General Elections in August 8, 2017.
From the findings, Kenyans were found to be increasingly satisfied with their democracy and overwhelmingly supportive of honest elections as the best way of choosing their leaders.
“It came out clear that most Kenyans feel free to join political organisations of their choice and to express their political opinions however, a majority of citizens are at least ‘somewhat’ afraid of becoming victims of political intimidation and violence during election campaigns,” said Paul Kamau from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).
Compared to 2014, 63 per cent of Kenyans consider the country to be more democratic while a worrying number, four out of ten Kenyans expressed fears of becoming victims of political intimidation or violence during election campaigns.
The study also revealed that corruption topped the most important problem facing Kenyans with majority claiming the country is moving in the right direction but not convinced with Jubilee administration’s management of the economy.
Forty eight percent of those polled said the country is moving in the right direction, three percent up from the 2016 where only 43 percent were convinced the country is on the right track.
Another 55 percent of the respondents were of the opinion that the country’s economy is moving in bad direction in the past one year and only 30 percent said the economy is in very good shape.
However, higher percentage of the population were dissatisfied with the current government on job creation, 67 percent said the government is handling job creation issue very badly while another 76 per cent of the population are of the opinion that government is doing poorly in keeping of prices stable.
“The youth think the economy is headed the right direction with 48 per cent in the year 2016 an increase from 43 per cent in 2014, ” said Kamau.
“Most Kenyans are not happy with the way the Jubilee government is managing the economy, creating jobs, and stabilizing prices,” he added.
The survey was conducted between September and December last year with 1,599 respondents interviewed across the country, it had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent with a 95 percent confidence level.
The Afrobarometer is a Pan African non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude towards surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions and related issues in Africa.
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