Nairobi — With 18 days to the August 4 referendum, a new opinion poll shows support firmly above simple majority required to give Kenya a new constitution.

An opinion poll released on Friday by Strategic Research indicates that 62 per cent of Kenyans will vote for the Proposed Constitution, with 20 per cent saying they will reject it altogether. Eighteen per cent of the voters were undecided.

The survey was conducted between July 9 and 14 in all the country's eight provinces, targeting Kenyans above 18 years and who are eligible to vote in the forthcoming referendum. The poll had a sample size of 3002 respondents.

The poll results will come as a boost to the Yes camp that suffered a blow after Prime Minister Raila Odinga, a key campaigner, was admitted to hospital early July and had to take a break from the referendum rallies.

The results were on Friday received with mixed reactions.

Mrs Janet Ong'era, one of the directors at the 'Yes' secretariat said the dividends of their hard work was finally beginning to pay off.

"This is the best news I have had in a number of days. This is proof enough that our work at the grassroots has began to show fruits."

However, Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo dismissed the results saying they were not representative.

"All these are shenanigans of the 'Yes' campaign, which will not bear any fruit. Kenyans know this. They will not trust these results," he said.

The Strategic Research survey is the latest to track Kenyan's voting intentions. All the polls on the referendum have had the 'Yes' side in the lead, but with the 'No' gradually closing the gap.

The first of these was carried out by Synovate in April, which had Yes at 64 per cent, No at 17 and the undecided at 19 per cent.

The latest poll reports that 74 per cent of Kenyans are likely to vote at the referendum.

Surprisingly, those who reported they were unlikely to vote were the youth (18-24) at 19.6 per cent while middle aged Kenyans (45-49) were the most likely voters polling an impressive 82.3 per cent.

The youth, who form the majority of voters, have been touted as one of the groups to benefit most from a new constitution and have been pushing for a generational change in Kenya's leadership.

Support for the draft is highest in Nyanza province -- considered a 'Yes' stronghold -- with a whopping 83.5 per cent of respondents saying they will vote 'Yes'.

It was closely followed by North Eastern (77.8), Nairobi (76.8), Western (73.3), Central (64.9), Coast (54.9), Rift Valley (51.5) and Eastern Province (48.9).

Rift Valley and Eastern provinces, considered the 'No' strongholds, have the highest number opposing the draft law. According to the survey, 31.5 and 29.7 per cent of respondents in the two areas said they would reject the draft law come August 4.

They two were closely followed by respondents in Coast province (18.8), Western (14.2), Central (14), Nairobi (11.6), North Eastern (8.7) and Nyanza (3.7).

Most Kenyans -- 63 per cent -- said the draft constitution was good, but still needed amendments in response to the question on what they felt about the document.

A further 25 per cent of the respondents said the draft was good and did not warrant any amendments.

Eight per cent of those polled said the proposed law was unacceptable, needing major amendments with a paltry four per cent saying the document was "unacceptable" and should be rejected altogether.

Of those polled, 85 per cent reported being registered to vote in the plebiscite while 15 per cent said they had not registered as voters.

Of this number, 29.1 per cent said they had no identification card (ID) while 20.1 per cent reported that they will not vote.

A further 85 per cent of Kenyans reported having either read of heard about the proposed constitution with 12 per cent pleading ignorance.

Only nine per cent of those surveyed said they had received information on the draft from political rallies, 17 per cent from colleagues and friends, church leaders (6), civic education (3) and family members (2).

The media was credited as the main source of information on the contents of the proposed constitution with 43.6 per cent relying on it followed by 23.2 per cent of Kenyans who said the document was their source.

On issues that Kenyans considered to be falsehoods peddled about the proposed constitution, 41 per cent said they did not believe that abortion will be legal under the new constitution.

Some 31 per cent said they were unconvinced by reports that their land will be confiscated by the government if they vote for the proposed constitution.