NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 20 — Infotrak Research Kenya has come under fire after deleting a poll on their Twitter page showing United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Deputy Presidential Candidate Rigathi Gachagua as the most preferred choice in Tuesday night’s running mate debate.
Shortly after the running mates debate came to an end, Infotrak posed the question: “Who is your preferred running mate?”
After several hours over 40,000 Twitter users had voted giving Gachagua a 32-percentage point lead over Karua.
According to results displayed on Infotrak’s page, Gachagua (UDA) led with 61.9 per cent, followed by Martha Karua (Azimio) at 29.1 per cent.
Justina Wamae (Roots Party) had 8.4 per cent while Ruth Mucheru (Agano) trailed at 0.4 per cent.
A section of Kenyans were however surprised after realizing that the Infotrak had deleted the poll from their page, under unclear circumstances.
“That Infotrak deleted these results from their handle goes to confirm their fake and vague Infotrak polls. Why get embarrassed with reality that goes against what you have all along been parroting against Gachagua, others. You can’t cage the truth for too long,” Stephen Mutoro, the Secretary General of the Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK), tweeted.
While admitting the Twitter polls are not scientific, Mutoro however questioned the rationale for commissioning such a survey only to delete its results.
“Media houses have been running Twitter polls with such cons. Issue is not accuracy but motive, integrity of #InfotrakPoll deletion. Scientific polls have errors!”
Another user admitted to participating in Twitter polls more than once saying he had multiple accounts.
“Twitter polls are not scientific and no formular. You can vote 5 times if you have the accounts. I voted 10 times because I have the accounts. 5 for Gachagua and 5 for Martha. Let’s wait for msema ukweli (the verdict) in 19 days,” Peter Wakaba tweeted.
Tuesday’s debate which featured Gachagua and Karua centered on integrity and was characterized by subtle strikes and rebuttals.