Kenyan pollsters attack regulation plans

KENYA— Pollsters have hit back at Kenyan MPs who want to legislate for how polls are conducted, calling the proposals “ill-advised and unnecessary”.

The Daily Nation reports comments from Synovate’s Pan Africa managing director George Waititu (pictured) and Strategic Research’s CEO Caesar Handa lamenting this “step backwards”.

“We are operating in a political market in which there is a lot of information in the public domain,” said Waititu. “One would hate to go back to the dark days when only politicians could give out information.”

The pollsters also made the point that the Kenyan opinion polling industry is already regulated by the country’s Marketing & Social Research Association – which bases its standard’s on Esomar’s guidelines.

MP Jamleck Kamau has filed a motion calling for the establishment of an Opinion Polls Control Board to determine how polls in the country should be conducted.

Those in favour of the motion worry that some polls are skewed and are being used to “push the agenda of certain politicians and their political parties”.

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Research Live is published by MRS.

The Market Research Society (MRS) exists to promote and protect the research sector, showcasing how research delivers impact for businesses and government.

Members of MRS enjoy many benefits including tailoured policy guidance, discounts on training and conferences, and access to member-only content.

For example, there's an archive of winning case studies from over a decade of MRS Awards.

Find out more about the benefits of joining MRS here.

0 Comments


Display name

Email

Join the discussion

Newsletter
Stay connected with the latest insights and trends...
Sign Up
Latest From MRS

Our latest training courses

Our new 2025 training programme is now launched as part of the development offered within the MRS Global Insight Academy

See all training

Specialist conferences

Our one-day conferences cover topics including CX and UX, Semiotics, B2B, Finance, AI and Leaders' Forums.

See all conferences

MRS reports on AI

MRS has published a three-part series on how generative AI is impacting the research sector, including synthetic respondents and challenges to adoption.

See the reports

Progress faster...
with MRS 
membership

Mentoring

CPD/recognition

Webinars

Codeline

Discounts