We have read about complaints especially from leading newspaper columnists that opinion polls are misleading Kenyans.
Well, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. I think opinion polls are important and should be taken with seriousness. There are a few electoral opinion polling companies in Kenya some of which include Infrotrack, Strategic Africa and Ipsos synovate.
These companies conduct political surveys where trained interviewers ask questions of people chosen at random from the population being measured and then they interpret the results and make public their findings.
They take a sample area to be a representative of the whole area, a method known as geographic-are probability sampling.
If conducted professionally, opinion polls can help us gauge what a population is thinking about a particular topic. It can also help politicians in planning and strategizing on their next political move.
Because a sample is selected at random, it gives the common 'mwananchi' a chance to air his or her views on a topic.