A recent survey by Infotrak shows that 65 percent of Kenyans feel the country is heading in the wrong direction.
According to an Infotrak poll dubbed ‘Which Way Kenya?’ Kenyans are continuously growing concerned over the direction the country is taking.
In June 2019, only 48 percent of Kenyans felt the country was headed the wrong direction. The perception increased by 8 percentage points in December 2020 to 56 percent.
In a poll conducted mid-March this year, and which targeted 1,000 respondents, only 14 percent of Kenyans agree that the country is heading in the right direction.
State of the economy
This poor performance is attributed to government performance with 58 percent of respondents citing the economy.
Another 34 percent of respondents cited high cost of living as their cause of worry. Further 17 percent cite unemployment that has been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The survey also shows that 11 percent of respondents who believe the country is headed in the wrong direction think the government has mismanaged the Covid-19 pandemic.
With Kenya battling the third wave of Covid 19 infections and new containment measures in place, the survey shows that 3 out of 5 respondents’ personal finance has been affected by the pandemic.
62 percent of those polled say the pandemic is a personal finance issue while 25 percent think it’s both a health and personal finance issue.
Wiped livelihoods
Further, 77 percent of respondents agree that the pandemic has had an impact on their livelihoods.
32 percent say the pandemic has affected their businesses while 28 percent say they no longer have an income. Equally, due to reduced business activity, 17 percent of respondents say their salary has been slashed.
This loss of income is having an impact on the living standards of many Kenyans. The survey shows that 6 percent of respondents are unable to cater for basic needs such as food, 2 percent unable to support their dependents back at home with another 2 percent unable to pay rent.
While at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 the government issued COVID-19 economic relief package, with the measures expiring on the first of January this year. The survey shows that 61 percent of respondents feel life has become extremely expensive since the lifting of government tax relief measures. 27 percent believe life is now moderately high while 10 percent say life has remained the same. However, despite the economic imbalance, 65 percent of Kenyans still support the governments extension of nationwide curfew.
