The powerful reach of Cambridge Analytica — the data analysis company that helped Donald Trump's campaign claim victory in the US — has become a source of concern in Kenya's ongoing conflict over national elections. This week, bloggers associated with the opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition published a leaked page of what they said was an internal memo describing tactics used by Cambridge Analytica to pursue victory for incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta, of the Jubilee party. A spokesperson for Cambridge Analytica told Global Voices that the document was “entirely fabricated.” The UK-based company has been in the limelight since Donald Trump's election victory in the US. The company was hired to analyze data about undecided voters and target them with information intended to sway them in Trump's favor. The false memo alleges that the company undertook “psychological measures” to make opposition supporters and members of the Luo ethnic group “appear violent” in an effort to discredit their political voices. It also urges them to “emotionally manipulate” supporters of the ruling party in order to guarantee their votes. It remains unknown who fabricated the memo, but its contents seem intended to leverage the increasingly widespread mistrust of the ruling party and its supporters. It has added fuel to an already raging debate over national elections that took place earlier this year. Although incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta technically secured a majority of votes in August elections, his victory was challenged by opposition leader Raila Odinga (of the NASA coalition) and then nullified by the Supreme Court, on grounds that the country's election systems were flawed. Since that decision came down, a re-vote has taken place, and Kenyatta once again has prevailed. But critics and opposition leaders say the election systems used to count votes saw no improvement in the interim, and millions of Kenyans responded by boycotting the re-run on October 26, leaving even more uncertainty around the country's political future. Some opposition leaders say they will protest against the re-run results. Violent clashes have erupted in various parts of the country, wherein a small minority of individuals appear to be instigating violence. In this recent election cycle, online actors — presumably working in the interests of the ruling party — have endeavored to stereotype one community, the Luo, as violent, and building the assumption that the main opposition party only has supporters from that community. This has only deepened the rift between the Luo and the ruling Jubilee party. “Big Data. Behavioral Micro-targeting. Political Campaign Support. Digital Support.” This is how Cambridge Analytica identifies its activities in its Twitter profile. Although the memo in circulation this week is now confirmed to be false, it has still underlined a key question for many Kenyans: what exactly is Cambridge Analytica doing in Kenya? Kenya's incumbent Jubilee party did in fact hire Cambridge Analytica to help run their campaign. In May 2017, local daily newspaper The Star reported that Uhuru Kenyatta had signed a contract with the UK-based company. This is not the first contract between the company and the ruling party. Cambridge Analytica's involvement in Kenyan politics began in 2013, when the company worked for Uhuru Kenyatta and The National Alliance (TNA), the forerunner to the Jubilee Party. During that year's campaign, the company conducted 47,000 on-the-ground surveys. According to the Cambridge Analytica website, this allowed the company to create a profile of the Kenyan electorate and come up with a campaign strategy “based on the electorate's needs (jobs) and fears (tribal violence).” Case study on Kenya, by Cambridge Analytica. Screenshot from Cambridge Analytica website. The case study also described how the company worked to mobilize potential youth supporters on social media: Of the audiences identified, our work highlighted that the youth cohort were an underutilized party asset that could be highly influential if mobilized. To connect with this audience, CA’s communications and strategy team devised an online social media campaign to generate a hugely active online following. Kenyatta won the 2013 election. In 2017, when the Jubilee party once again contracted their services, the BBC published an article on Cambridge Analytica and the company's ongoing ‘project’ in Kenya.