5 ways Cambridge Analytica secretly influenced Uhuru’s re-election
The UK firm was involved in writing Uhuru's speeches
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In an undercover investigation titled: Cambridge Analytica Uncovered: Secret filming reveals election tricks, the firm’s top bosses admit to being the key drivers of Mr. Kenyatta’s campaigns.
Alex Taylor, Cambridge’s Chief Data Officer and Managing Director Mark Turnbull were caught on tape detailing the role they played in Kenya’s elections.
Mr. Turnbull disclosed that they entered into a contract with President Kenyatta party in 2013 and continued during 2017 election when he vied for a second term.
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Re-branding
According to the Managing Director, Cambridge single-handedly conducted Mr. Kenyatta’s campaigns by first re-branding the party twice.
“We ran the Kenyatta campaign in 2013 and 2017. We have re-branded the entire party twice,” Turnbull said.
In 2013, Mr. Kenyatta vied under The National Alliance (TNA) Party while in 2017 he was under the merger Jubilee Party.
Other roles
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Mr. Turnbull stated that Cambridge was also involved in writing Jubilee’s manifesto, conducting surveys, preparing Mr. Kenyatta’s speeches among other duties.
“We have written their manifesto, done two rounds of 50, 000 surveys. Huge amounts of research, analysis, messaging. Then we would write all the speeches and we would stage the whole thing so just about every element of his campaign,” Turnbull said.
The firm is accused of using damaging information about politicians to push certain agenda to the electorates. The main purpose is to play with the citizenry’s emotions by either creating fear or wooing undecided voters towards a candidate.
“They will find all the skeletons in his closet quietly, discreetly and give you report,” Turnbull reveals how Cambridge works with spies to gain information.
Turnbull notes that the information is then released on the web at an appropriate time. The key role according to the Managing Director is to make it as believable as possible and avoid the possibility of it being rubbished as propaganda.
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“It has to happen without anyone thinking that’s propaganda because the moment you think that's propaganda the next question is, who’s put that out? So we have to be very subtle,” he mentioned.
Damaging Raila's image
Last year Kenyans on Facebook were bombarded with alarming information concerning NASA leader Raila Odinga who was the main rival of Mr. Kenyatta.
Countless videos were posted online describing how dangerous a man Raila was if elected to be the President of Kenya. The video portrayed the former Prime Minister as a leader who will drag Kenya into poverty, violence and dictator regime.
However, Cambridge denied any involvement in the production or publication of such videos.
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At the same time, Cambridge confesses that to avoid being linked to certain activities it may change its name when entering into a contract.
"It may be that we have to contract under a different name, a different entity, with a different name so that no record exists with our name attached to this at all," he said.
Cambridge Analytica and its parent company, Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL), have worked in more than 200 elections across the world, including US, Nigeria, Kenya, the Czech Republic, India and Argentina.
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