Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, photo courtesy WWW.Today.com
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie has revealed that his predecessor in Kenya was found dead in a hotel room.
He said the man, Dan Muresan, was working for President Uhuru Kenyatta during the 2013 polls before his death under unclear circumstances.
“I didn’t notice at the time when I first joined….he [Dan] was just found dead in his hotel room. That’s why they had a vacancy,” Wylie said in a TV interview.
Dan, a Romanian, died in September 2012. He was working with a British political consultancy firm, which has now emerged to be linked to Cambridge Analytica.
Also read; Jubilee hired consultancy linked to Cambridge Analytica – David Murathe
Wylie adds that the company, which is said to have influenced the thinking of many Kenyans ahead of the August 2017 vote, did not tell him what happened to his predecessor.
When asked whether he was aware that the vacancy occurred as a result of a murder, the whistleblower states that he cannot conclude the said person was killed.
“I can’t say he was murdered…He died in his hotel room,” he said.
The revelations came in the wake of concerns among Kenyans on the role Cambridge Analytica played in shaping last year’s vote.
Nasa has called for investigations into the level of influence that the propaganda firm had on the outcome of the disputed poll.
The firm works by harvesting personal data from Facebook and social media and then targeting voters with social media posts and online advertisements to influence their opinions.
Read: Cambridge Analytica’s Kenya election role ‘must be investigated’ – Nasa
In an undercover film broadcast on Channel 4 News in the UK on Monday night, CA managing director Mark Turnbull confirmed that the company had covertly worked for Uhuru.
“We have rebranded the party twice, we have written their manifesto, done two rounds of 50,000 surveys, huge amounts of analysis, research, messaging. Then we’d write all the speeches and we’d stage the whole thing, so just about every element of his campaign,” he said
Read more of this story at The Star.Co.ke
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