https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2020-09-28-infotrak-fights-off-extortion-claims-as-mps-cry-foul/Infotrak was on Monday fighting off extortion claims as MP cry foul over poll ranking.
MPs on Monday accused Infotrak of using the rankings to make a kill from them, but Infotrak CEO Angela Ambitho dismissed the claims as untrue.
Bondo MP Gideon Ochanda, who was among the lawmakers who didn’t get a favourable ranking, dismissed the rankings, saying whatever happens after the study and the official release makes the whole thing unbelievable.
Ochanda was ranked 184th nationally and last in Siaya county.
The lawmaker told the Star that there were attempts by people purporting to work for Infotrak to negotiate the positioning. He said he turned down their offers.
“They (Infotrak) do things properly and after that, they now call individuals one by one and they renegotiate in terms of positioning. Definitely, there are some attempts (people calling me), only that you don’t know if the person who calls you is from there. There are people who have been calling members. I believe they ask for money,” Ochanda said on the phone.
Responding to Ochanda’s claims, Ambitho confirmed that officers reached out to MPs but denied that the mission was to have the results manipulated at a fee.
“Indeed our people have reached out to various political leaders. Why? For two reasons, to make them aware that the data is there and to book appointments for them to actually interact with the data should there be an occasion where we release the data publicly they already knew what the data was,” Ambitho said.
Ochanda also said some MPs had the results as early as July, two months to the official release of the findings.
“There were some people who had these results by July; I remember a member hinted to me that they have some results from Infotrak and there are some interesting revelations,” he said.
The same claims were made on Sunday by Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma who alleged that after parting with Sh75,000 an MP would get a top 20 ranking.
“I am registering an Opinion Poll firm. Politicians who are doing badly on the ground should see me for a good rating. Unlike those other firms like Infotrak charging Sh75,000 for top-20 ranking for politicians, I will only charge Sh20,000,” Kaluma posted on his Facebook page.
Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo said the pollster is running broke and using the poll to resuscitate its dwindling financial fortunes.
“Infotrak by Ambitho must be desperately broke to revert to the kind of polling. Stop clan politics couched as opinion polls,” she said.
But according to the pollster, the Sh75,000 was paid by any MP who wanted complete detailed data for his or her constituency and had nothing to do with dishing favourable position as claimed.
“For those MPs who were interested in a detailed report, they had to pay some money to get their reports analysed because that is what we do. A simple analysis of the current information by different demographics would range from Sh50,000 to Sh75,000,” she said.
“What we will not sell you a position. It will never change because you paid for data. We don’t have the power to change the rank unless he or she goes back to the ground to do what needs to be done.”
The Infotrak CEO also revealed cases where some MPs made several trips to her office to try to manipulate the results.
In an SMS seen by the Star, the pollster told off one of the lawmakers who was pushing to be placed among the top 20 performers.
“Thank you for taking the time to visit our offices yesterday, I am sure you found the discussion on our performance index enlightening. I received an orthodox request from you which we obviously will be unable to expedite,” the message read.
“Allow me to reiterate that as a professional agency we never compromise our statistics, our role is to report things as they are in the belief that those receiving the information will effectively use the statistics to evaluate their performance and improve where necessary.”
Edited by R.Wamochie
Topic: Infotrak fights off extortion claims as MPs cry foul (Read 2452 times)