Nairobi — A newly-released opinion survey conducted by the Trends and Insights for Africa (TIFA) research shows that 48 percent of Kenyans support the National Dialogue Committee process.
A similar percentage, the pollster said on Thursday, are certain the dialogue will succeed.
"Only about half of Kenyans give strong support to the current National Dialogue talks, with nearly one-in-five strongly opposed to them," stated the report.
"A clear plurality of Kenyans across the political divide are optimistic about the outcome of the current National Dialogue talks, at least in terms of obviating the Opposition's intentions to organize more protest-demonstrations."
The study which sampled 1,530 respondents revealed that 19 percent opposed the talks even as the committee readies for public hearing on Friday at the Bomas of Kenya.
Twenty-one per cent of the respondents said they believe it is unlikely that the talks will succeed and another 20 per cent said they were skeptical about the success of the talks.
The study added that 46 per cent of the population sampled believe that the national dialogue will more likely help the Kenya Kwanza government fulfill its campaign promises.
However, 38 per cent termed the dialogue unhelpful while 14 per cent said they were unsure.
"Only a slight plurality of Kenyans believe that a successful outcome of the current National Dialogue talks will enable the Kenya Kwanza government to fulfill its most important campaign promises (46 per cent)," added the report.
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"Moreover, the views about this across the political divide are minimal."
The team led by National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah and his Azimio counterpart Kalonzo Musyoka on Monday resolved to allow members of the public and stakeholders to submit their memoranda by Friday.
Two thirds gender rule, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Secretariat, and IEBC selection panel agenda issues will be part of the discussions during the public hearings.
"On Friday, some identified stakeholders will appear before us for 20 minutes each to give an exposition of their memorandum where thereafter members of the public will also present their memorandum," Ichung'wah said.
The National Assembly Majority Leader stated public hearings shall continue for a period of one week highlighting the need to save time for the official commencement of the peace talks.
"We have opted to engage with the stakeholders at this time because the committee is running out of time, according to the NDC calendar the stakeholders' engagements were scheduled to begin from 25th to 29th September," he stated.
