Revealed: What Kenyans want new President to fix in 100 days
A woman expresses shock after seeing her shopping bill.
Kenyans have cited high cost of living as the most pressing issue that the new president should prioritise in his first 100 days of office.
A fresh poll conducted by the Nation Media Group (NMG) reveals that 71 percent of Kenyans want the next administration to urgently address high inflation, followed by unemployment (53 percent).
The individual who will succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta after the August 9 General Elections is also expected fix the transport, roads and infrastructure sector (33 percent), as well as address access to affordable healthcare (27 percent).
The need to fix runaway inflation attracted highest resonance with Kenyans in Nairobi and South Rift, both at 78 percent, followed by Western (75 percent) and Nyanza and North Rift (74 percent). Northern Kenya had 71 percent of people agreeing that the cost of living was too high, Coast 70 percent, lower Eastern 67 percent and Mount Kenya 63 percent.
In terms of gender, 73 percent of men and 69 percent of women rated high cost of living as their top issue of concern. In terms of age, those between 18 and 26 years scored this as a top issue, followed by those between 36- 45 years.
Graft
Corruption, which is included as an urgent issue to tackle in manifestos of leading Presidential candidates Raila Odinga (Azimio) and Deputy President William Ruto (Kenya Kwanza), polled at 21 percent as a priority area for the Kenyans surveyed.
Mr Odinga and Dr Ruto have also been vocal in their political rallies by promising to address graft within the first 100 days if one of them succeeds President Kenyatta in the August elections.
Insecurity and crime
The two leading presidential candidates have also given an undertaking to urgently address insecurity and crime, poverty reduction, reviving agriculture, equal distribution of resources, bad politics and land issues.
However, the issues, according to the pollster, seem to be of little concern to Kenyans in the first 100 days of the new administration, polling less than 10 percent.
Areas of least concern
The opinion poll also revealed that alcoholism (0.1 percent), disaster management (0.5 percent), and drug abuse (1 percent) are not considered priority areas for the new President by most Kenyans.
Ethnicity and tribalism, public participation, sewage and sanitation and environmental conservation also polled lowly in the survey.
Unemployment
At 62 percent, young people between the ages of 18-26 years considered unemployment their top issue, followed by those within the 27-35 age bracket at 57 percent.
Unemployment, however, was of least of concern among those aged 46 to 55 years (41 percent).
The NMG poll covered 47 counties and 290 constituencies of Kenya.
“To ensure the survey findings were representative of Kenya voters, 18 years and above population, the distribution of the survey sample across the 47 counties and 290 constituencies was proportionately allocated,” the survey says.
