Amani National Congress (ANC) Party leader Musalia Mudavadi has said that the recent TIFA polls that placed Raila Odinga ahead of William Ruto in the presidential race are sponsored.
Mudavadi said the poll results were skewed to lay the ground for election-rigging. He, however, never produced any evidence to support his claims.
The TIFA polls showed that the ticket of Raila Odinga and Martha Karua enjoys a 39 per cent popularity rating compared to that of William Ruto and Rigathi Gachagua (35 per cent).
While addressing a consultative forum in Murang’a County on Saturday, May 21, Mudavadi said the opinion poll results were released to condition Kenyans to accept a Raila Odinga “rigged” victory.
The ANC Party boss further said that the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) and the ICT ministry have conspired to ensure that Raila wins the polls.
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“The IEBC is responsible for managing a free and fair election. However, we have started seeing signs that the Communications Authority of Kenya is bent on manipulating [IEBC chairperson Wafula] Chebukati,” Mudavadi said during his address at the Gakoigo Stadium in Maragua Constituency.
“We want to make it very clear that the institution that manages elections in the country is the IEBC only, and not the Communications Authority of Kenya, which is mandated to regulate the airwaves. We don’t want people to bring conflict between the IEBC and the Communications Authority of Kenya,” he said.
The ANC Party chief also expressed concern at how opinion polls are conducted in the country.
“We’ve also seen some people releasing opinion polls that have no credible foundation. We want to also make it clear that you shall not cheat Kenyans by introducing opinion polls that have no basis in order to put a foundation that would allow the theft of elections. Opinion poll firms, please do not subject Kenyans to this nonsense,” he said.
Mudavadi also called for media objectivity during the electioneering period.
“Apart from the candidates, we also want the media to append signatures to a deed that they shall report fairly without bias.
“Let pollsters also sign a deed with the IEBC that the opinion polls that they’ll be producing will be fair; based on facts, and not engineered to disrupt the will of the people of Kenya.”
The IEBC is on the record assuring Kenyans that the elections will be transparent.
Kenya Kwanza competitors, Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya, previously accused Deputy President William Ruto’s team of “sensing defeat” in the upcoming polls, hence the allegations that the government is plotting to rig the elections in favour of Raila Odinga.
