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Kenya’s Presidential Debates 2022 organized by the Media Owners of Kenya (MoA), Media Council of Kenya (MCK), and the Kenya Editors Guild (KEG), are ongoing in the run-up to the General Elections on 9th August 2022. The central debates have been organized for the Nairobi Gubernatorial candidates, the Deputy President candidates and ultimately, the Presidential candidates, with the debates broadcast live on all major Kenyan TV channels and several radio stations.

The Running Mate debates happened on Tuesday 19th July 2022 in two tiers. Debate 1 featured Justina Wambui (Roots Party) and Ruth Mucheru Mutua (Agano Party), while Debate 2 pitted Azimio’s Martha Karua against UDA’s Rigathi Gachagua.

In this article, we present findings from a rapid survey we conducted immediately after the debate to gauge Kenyans’ thoughts on the debates, the topics discussed, and their conduct.

Survey Report: Kenyan Voters’ Thoughts on the Deputy President Debates

Following the Kenya Deputy President Debates 2022, we conducted a quick survey touching on various themes covered in the debates. The survey, run through the GeoPoll App, sought to understand who watched the debates, what they thought about the candidates, the topics discussed and the moderators, and the impact of the debates on their voting decisions.

We present the results in the infographic below.

Major Highlights

  • The survey screened out respondents who were not registered voters. All the results are, therefore, drawn from voters (self-declared).
  • 95% of the respondents said they watched or listened to the Deputy Presidential Debates
  • The most popular channel to follow the debates (76%). Twenty-five percent of the respondents streamed online on channels such as YouTube and Facebook, while 12% followed the conversations live on social media. Only 9% listened to the debates on radio.
  • Employment, inflation and cost of living, healthcare, corruption, and education are the most critical issues that Kenyans are putting into consideration in making political decisions.
  • Most of the respondents felt that inflation and cost of living (69%), employment (64%) and corruption (60%) should have been addressed more in the debates.
  • The candidates’ performance in the debates is “very likely” to influence the vote decisions for 48% of the respondents.
  • Debate moderators scored reasonably high among the respondents, with the biggest proportion giving them 7/10 (25%) and 8/10(20%) ratings.
  • The respondents gave a myriad of answers when we asked what they likely or didn’t like on the survey. You can access the raw answers here.
  • 96% of the respondents plan to watch the Presidential Debate.
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Report

About this survey

This GeoPoll rapid survey was conducted on 21st and 22nd July 2022 among 623 respondents in Kenya using the GeoPoll mobile app. The sample was not demographically representative and naturally leaned towards younger people in urban areas. The sample consisted of 69% males.

To quickly conduct a scientific study on the Kenya elections or other topics, please contact GeoPoll.

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