NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Nearly 60 percent of the registered voters in Kenya support the new constitution set for a Wednesday referendum, a poll suggests.
Kenyans head to the polls Wednesday to vote for a constitution that diminishes the power of the president and establishes two separate houses of Parliament.
Whichever Kenyan tribe held the president historically had considerable influence over the national state of affairs.
The Kikuyu tribe, which includes President Mwai Kibaki, and the Luo tribe, which includes Prime Minister Raila Odinga, favor the measure, The Wall Street Journal reports. Members of the Kalenjin group, meanwhile, oppose the measure along with their political leader William Ruto.
Debate over the constitutional measure has been marked by violence. Two explosions in June tore through downtown Nairobi, killing at least five people.
Ethnic violence in Kenya has killed more than 1,300 people since 2008.
A July survey by the Nairobi office of the global marketing company Synovate Ltd. found that 58 percent of the 6,005 surveyed members of the voting public in Kenya said they would vote in favor of the Wednesday referendum. Another 17 percent said they were undecided in a poll that had a 1.6 percentage point sampling error, the Journal added.
