Jubilee Party Confirms Link to British Data Mining Firm Cambridge Analytica

Jubilee party has now confirmed it hired the services of a political data firm affiliated to Cambridge Analytica (CA).

Jubilee says it contracted Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) — a sister company of Cambridge Analytica — which is at the centre of an election tampering scandal involving Facebook.

Jubilee Vice-chairman David Murathe said: “They [SCL] were basically branding and all that but not directly.”

This is the first comment that Jubilee has made since claims that the British data mining firm had a role in President Kenyatta's presidential campaigns in 2013 and 2017.

On Tuesday, Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix was suspended after he emerged on secret recordings by BBC boasting how his firm also played a key role in US President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Kenyan opposition party Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) was angered by the reports of Cambridge Analytica’s role in the Kenyan elections.

“The same propaganda that they used in Trump’s election is what has been used in Kenya. Cambridge Analytica is now becoming an international propagandist,” said Junet Mohamed, ODM's director of elections.

However, Jubilee's Elgeyo-Marakwet senator and Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen downplayed the UK's firm role in influencing voting patterns in Kenya.

“Those things don’t influence elections in Kenya,” he said.

“Kenya is not America. In Kenya, vernacular radio stations are more influential than those things.”