By Vitalis Kimutai
You can now participate in opinion polls research through your mobile phone.
Poll Kenya on Sunday launched a service that provides Kenyans an opportunity to air their opinions on politics and other critical issues.
"We are offering a fast, efficient, and easy way to track the popularity of presidential, governorship, senate and parliamentary candidates in the country," said Sammy Karoney, a director at Eskay Communications Ltd, which owns the research company.
Members of the public seeking to participate will be required to send a blank short text message (SMS) or the word ‘Poll’ to a service number – 3005, in order to be registered.
They will then get instructions to provide their mobile phone numbers, mail address, county in which they are registered as voters, gender and age to enable the administrators curb double registration or double voting.
"Poll Kenya systems and technology minimises possible errors as it enhances data reliability and accuracy," Karoney said.
It will also enable members of the public to provide feedback and opinions. "The public are able to follow the statistics in real time on the Internet," Karoney said.
Barrack Muluka, who was the guest speaker during the launch of the service at Laico Hotel Nairobi asked politicians to use opinion polls to lay strategies.
"When some politicians are rated highly, they are always eager to depict the polls as credible. But when their grip wanes and the polls show their percentages tumbling down, they claim the polls have been fixed," Mr Muluka said.
