Infotrak on the Spot After Deleting Opinion Polls Of the DP Debate
After the deputy presidential debate was conducted yesterday at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) various media platforms conducted an online opinion poll where many Kenyans were seen voting. Infotrak was among the platforms that saw many Kenyans voting out their opinions based on how the debate was conducted.
Leah Mukangai 
According to the opinion poll posted by the Infotrak Research company in Kenya, the names of the four candidates who participated in the deputy presidential debate were presented. That is Roots Party presidential running mate Justina Wamae and her Agano Party counterpart Ruth Mucheru. Kenya Kwanza presidential running mate, Rigathi Gachagua, and his counterpart Azimio la Umoja running mate, Martha Karua.
From the polls yesternight, DP Ruto's running mate was seen to lead with a 62% vote. Azimio running mate, Martha Karua was the second with a 29% vote. Justina Wamae was third with an 8% vote while Ruth Mucheru was the last with a 1% vote.
From the opinion polls, 47,093 people had voted for the candidates.
This morning it was discovered that Infotrak had deleted the poll. The move has caused an uproar among Kenyans as they are questioning why the poll was deleted.
Here are some screen grabs from some of the Kenyans.
Angela Ambitho, CEO of Infotrak, spoke to a media company in Kenya and allayed Kenyans' concerns about the authenticity of research firms and the role these polls play in shaping the electoral period.
She explained that the poll was intended to gauge the running mate debate and the general mood of Kenyans, but as the results came in, the firm noticed something unusual.
Ambitho stated that they discovered the poll had been infiltrated by bots, which harmed the survey's credibility.
As Infotrak's social media team continued to monitor the poll, they discovered that a large portion of the accounts voting were not genuine.
"When we did this Twitter poll we realized there were bots and we decided to pull it do. A Twitter poll is not scientific but it can give a gauge of what Twitter users think," she stated.
Several Twitter accounts' authenticity has been called into question in recent days. According to Reuters, researchers estimate that anywhere from 9% to 15% of the millions of Twitter profiles are automated accounts or bots.
