British data mining firm Cambridge Analytica was yet again on the receiving end from Raila Odinga, who accused it of compromising democracy in Africa.
Last year, the ODM leader had threatened to sue the firm over fake news and propaganda, which it allegedly spread against him in 2013 and 2017 polls.
At Chatham House where he was giving a lecture on the legacy of Kofi Annan on Monday, Raila however, conceded that it was difficult to sue the firm since it has since pulled down the fake content.
“I have been a victim of these fake news. The international community has failed to rein in them,” Raila told participants at Chatham House as quoted by the Standard.
“Cambridge Analytica were running a platform where anytime you opened a page you would see my picture there with very negative stories. Once the campaigns were over, you could not see those pages, making it difficult to seek legal redress," he said.
The firm, in an investigative piece carried out by Channel 4, admitted campaigning for President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2013 and 2017. The expose almost caused divisions in Kenya.
“We have re-branded the entire party twice, written the manifesto, done research, analysis and messaging,” said Mark Turnbull, the managing director of the company’s political arm in the Channel 4 expose. “I think we wrote all the speeches and we staged the whole thing.”
On the legacy of Dr Annan, Odinga recalled how he fixed out Kenya post election violence of 2007/08, which almost threatened to break the country apart.
“In Kenya, we had the good fortune of experiencing Annan’s diplomacy first-hand for at least two months in 2008,” Raila said