A poll by Trends & Insights for Africa (TIFA) has placed Azimio la Umoja One Kenya presidential flagbearer, Raila Odinga ahead with 39 percent popularity after naming Narc Kenya Party leader Martha Karua as his running mate.

According to the findings, the ODM leader has shot seven points in under a month getting ahead of his main challenger, Deputy President William Ruto who moved to 35 percent from 39 percent within the same time frame.

The polls conducted on Tuesday, May 17, follow a day after Odinga named Karua as his running mate, and two days after deputy Ruto unveiled Mathira MP, Rigathi Gachagua as his running mate.

TIFA defended its move to conduct another poll barely a month after the previous poll stating that the reason to conduct the survey was to seek an understanding of how extensive public knowledge was regarding the identity of running mates.

“The reason for conducting this survey so soon should be obvious, however: the announcement, in quick succession over the last few days, of the deputy presidential running-mates of the two main presidential candidates – William Ruto and Raila Odinga – followed immediately by the announcement by Kalonzo Musyoka, previously associated with Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja coalition, that he would contest the presidency as well, and the identification of his own running mate,” TIFA wrote.

They added: “TIFA felt, therefore, that even within just a few hours of these announcements, it would be useful to conduct a survey so as to capture two main realities(1) how extensive is public knowledge of the identity of these running mates and (2) how if at all have these developments impacted on the contours of the presidential contest, “

The findings sampled from 1,719 respondents across the country showed that Deputy Ruto's current tally of 35 per cent is a drop from the 38 per cent in November 2021 and February 2022, as well as the 39 per cent in April this year, while Odinga recorded an improvement from the 23 per cent in November 2021, 27 per cent in February 2022, and 32 per cent in April, to his current 39 per cent.

On the other hand, Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka who unveiled his running mate on the same day as Odinga remained at 2 per cent.

The survey also showed Ruto-led party United Democratic Alliance (UDA) was ahead of other political parties with 29 per cent followed by Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) which is at 25 per cent.

The survey also revealed that more Kenyans expressed support for Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance (38%)compared to Kenya Kwanza(28%).

The survey conducted in was done through telephone interviews funded by TIFA, the respondents were selected from regions subdivided as Mt Kenya, Nairobi, Northern, Nyanza, South Rift, Lower Eastern. Central Rift, Coast, and Western depending on the population.