Nairobians don’t care to know their MPs, new poll
Do you know your Member of Parliament? Well, not the ushago one but the representative of your Nairobi estate at the national assembly.
A newly released poll has established that most Nairobians do not know their MPs and don’t care about CDF projects within the county.
The poll carried out by Ipsos Synovate found that 59 per cent of Nairobians do not know their MPs.
“Nearly four-in-five (79%) Kenyans correctly identified their local MP when asked to give his or her name. However, this proportion ranges from highs in Western and Eastern regions (nearly nine-in-ten) to less than two-thirds (59%) in Nairobi,” read a report based on a poll conducted by Ipsos Synovate
The poll was conducted between July 30 and August 9 among different sample sizes countrywide and the interviews were conducted one on one.
“This is evidently a reflection of two realities: First, that many urban-dwellers pay more attention to constituency-level politics in their rural home-areas (and perhaps also go to vote there), while others vote not in the constituency in which they live in the capital, but in another of the county’s 17 constituencies,” the report states.
The poll further established that most Nairobians in the 17 constituencies are not aware of any Constituency Development Fund (CDF) projects.
“Regionally, such awareness ranges from a high in Nyanza (96%) to a low in North Eastern (43%). This is gap appears mainly a reflection of the fact that so few residents of Nairobi and the Coast know of any such projects,” the survey states.
The poll also included questions on whether constituents would re-elect their current MPs. Cord supporters, at 57 per cent, would re-elect their MPs against Jubilee supporters at 52 per cent.
Ipsos however added a disclaimer that the re-election figures do not necessarily dictate the outcome of the upcoming elections since they are still a year ahead.