20th March, 2018
A British election consultancy firm preyed on Kenyans' fear of ethnic violence and joblessness to help President Uhuru Kenyatta win the August 2017 poll. According to a video secretly recorded and broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4 News on Monday, Cambridge Analytica (CA), a data analytics firm, deployed psychological manipulation to influence voters in both the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections.
The company has denied the claims. The news channel said it mounted a sting operation in which it secretly recorded top Cambridge Analytica executives saying they could use bribes, former spies, and Ukrainian sex workers to entrap politicians around the world. In Kenya, Cambridge Analytica interviewed 47,000 people to assess Kenyans' fears, then used the information to engineer an online media onslaught against Uhuru's opponents. The firm worked with a local research partner to deliver results for Uhuru in 2013 and then replicated the strategy in the 2017 polls.
Read more at: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001273907/uproar-over-uhuru-campaign-agency-s-election-tricks