A majority of Kenyans are dissatisfied with the government's economic performance, a new opinion poll by Radio Africa Group Limited shows.
The poll shows 56 per cent of Kenyans are not happy with the performance of President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration.
Only 16 per cent of the respondents said they were satisfied with the Jubilee government’s performance in terms of economic development.
In the poll conducted between July 22 and 30, some 28 per cent of the respondents said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the performance of Jubilee government on the economy.
Residents of Lower Eastern and the South Rift are the most dissatisfied with the economy at 39 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.
Other than Nairobi and Central, less than two per cent of residents of the rest of the regions said they were very satisfied with the government's performance on the economy.
On 'very satisfied and 'moderately satisfied' aggregate, only those living in North Eastern, Nairobi and Coast gave Jubilee a score of more than 20 per cent.
According to the poll, 47 per cent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the performance of their county governments.
On average, only 20 per cent are satisfied with the performance of their respective counties.
Only 18 of the counties got a 'very satisfied' score with only Kajiado, Murang'a, Turkana and Kwale scoring more than 10 per cent.
Busia, Taita Taveta, Nyamira, Tana River, Marsabit, Meru and Bomet scored zero per cent on both 'very satisfied' and ' moderately satisfied' parameters.
The counties where residents are 'very disappointed' with the performance of their county government are Bomet (73 per cent), Kitui (65 per cent), West Pokot (39 per cent), Kakamega (38 per cent), Mandera (38 per cent), Bungoma (35 per cent) and Machakos (34 per cent).
The high cost of living ranks as the top problem in the counties at 59 per cent followed by unemployment at 52 per cent and poor healthcare at 28 per cent.
Corruption (26 per cent), insecurity (22 per cent) and poor roads (28 per cent) are the other major problems mentioned at the county level.
High cost of living ranked highest among the problems with 65 per cent of respondents citing it in Nairobi, Central (67 per cent), North Rift (66 per cent), Western (64 per cent), North Eastern (74 per cent), Lower Eastern (37 per cent) and Coast (49 per cent)
Unemployment ranks highest in Western (60 per cent) and South Rift (66 per cent) and is lowest at the Coast (36 per cent).
Nationally, unemployment and the high cost of living are the greatest problems facing Kenyans today.
The poll shows that 71 per cent of the respondents cited unemployment as their biggest problem.
Some 70 per cent of the 3,127 adults polled across the 47 counties said the high cost of living was their main problem.
This is the first time that the issue of unemployment has crossed the 70 per cent mark in the last four polls conducted by Radio Africa Limited.
However, unemployment and the cost of living have consistently been the top problems cited in all the polls followed by corruption.
In July 2020, those polled put unemployment at 62 per cent and this rose to 64 per cent in October 2020 before dropping to 58 per cent in the January 2021 poll.
The high cost of living was at 65 per cent in July last year, 67 per cent in October and 78 per cent in January.
Corruption was at 30 per cent in July last year, 46 per cent in October, 45 per cent in January and 37 per cent in the latest poll.
The fourth top problem facing Kenyans according to the poll is poor health care whose rating has been between 20 per cent and 28 per cent across the four polls.
Curiously, poor maternal and reproductive healthcare has been rated as a key problem by less than one per cent of the respondents in the previous polls but this has shot up to nine per cent in the July poll.
The survey results also suggest that there has been an upsurge in crime with those who see insecurity as a major problem rising from 12 per cent in January to 21 per cent in July.
Edited by P.O
