There will be no more political polls in Kenya from the Ipsos pollster.
The firm’s face in Kenya, researcher Tom Wolf, has also been sent packing through redundancy.
According to Wolf, Ipsos in France decided that its Kenyan subsidiary, Ipsos-Kenya, will not be including ‘political’ survey results in its public releases.
“On the basis of this decision, it was judged that my position as research analyst had become redundant. I was therefore given notice, which took effect on 31st March this year. I am thus no longer associated with Ipsos,” Wolf said in a statement to newsrooms.
Ipsos has been among the pollsters viewed as credible in Kenya although political surveys from the firms during political periods were not embraced by all political sides.
The firms were always bashed and accused of been paid by political rivals to portray opponents in a certain way.
“Poiliticians will always be politicians. When you don’t play to their tricks, they will attack you. When the results are in their favour, they will be happy. For those of us in this field, we got used to them,” a source in firm involved in polling said.
It will be interesting to see if Infotrak will continue doing political polling.