Attack opinion polls with credible evidence

It is disheartening when politicians who should know better seek to gag information crucial to the public simply because it is not flattering. Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka should back up with evidence his claim that the latest opinion poll released by a research firm is biased.

Mr Musyoka has even proposed that laws be passed to keep pollsters in check. When a politician complains about an independent opinion poll, it could mean the polling was conducted without undue influence from vested political interests.

This is a good thing given our recent history when the country moved close to a civil war over disputed presidential results.

At the time, at least one pollster was accused of having been influenced to swing the results of its research one way, and although no evidence was ever provided to prove this, the huge gap between the pollster’s results and others was puzzling. However, of late pollsters have generally been in concurrence that most Kenyans prefer The Hague option for the Ocampo Six poll chaos suspects as opposed to a local tribunal, and do not support the shuttle mission to convince members of the UN Security Council to postpone the two ICC cases now facing the Ocampo Six.

It would therefore be better for the VP and his ilk to wait for other well established, independent pollsters to conduct similar research before proposing measures that could breach the Constitution.

Different Tune

It is possible that if the latest pollster verdict had implied that indeed most Kenyans support the VP’s expensive shuttle diplomacy, Mr Musyoka would be singing a different tune.

But the VP is not the first politician to cry foul. Many other presidential aspirants continue to condemn scientific polling evidence because they trail their opponents.

Sometimes truth hurts, but it still remains the truth.