A new research by the TIFA polling firm shows that 74 percent of Kenyans believe President William Ruto is taking the country in the wrong direction.
The survey reveals a clear shift in public mood from mixed opinions in 2023 to overwhelmingly negative sentiment in 2026.
Back in March 2023, 48 percent of respondents said the country was moving in the wrong direction, while 37 percent felt it was heading in the right direction and 12 percent were neutral. But by June 2023, negative sentiment had increased to 56 percent, with only 25 percent expressing optimism about the country’s direction.
A brief improvement was recorded in September 2023, when 49 percent said Kenya was moving in the right direction compared to 36 percent who felt it was going the wrong way. Since then, sentiment has steadily deteriorated.
By May 2025, a significant 75 percent of respondents said the country was heading in the wrong direction, while only 14 percent believed it was on the right track. The trend remained largely negative in August and September 2025, when 62 percent still felt Kenya was moving in the wrong direction, compared to 15 percent who said it was heading in the right direction.
In November 2025, pessimism deepened further, with 68 percent of respondents saying the country was on the wrong path, while 17 percent felt it was moving in the right direction.
The most recent findings from May 2026 show that 74 percent of Kenyans now believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, compared to 14 percent who say it is moving in the right direction and 11 percent who are undecided or neutral.
The data points to a sustained decline in public confidence over the period under review, with a particularly sharp shift toward negative sentiment since 2024.
Fieldwork was conducted between May 2 and 11, 2026, covering a nationally representative sample spread across nine zones. These include Central Rift, Coast, Lower Eastern, Mt. Kenya, Nairobi, Northern, Nyanza, South Rift, and Western. Data collection was carried out through face-to-face, household-based interviews, with interviews conducted mainly in Swahili and English.
The study achieved a sample size of 2,013 respondents, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.18 percent. It is worth noting that larger error margins apply to sub-samples.
