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Revealed: Mysterious death of data analyst who worked for Uhuru campiagn
By Moses Michira | Published Thu, March 22nd 2018 at 08:03, Updated March 22nd 2018 at 11:42 GMT +3 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
Dan Muresan’s death in a Nairobi hotel was until yesterday just another case of a man dying in a foreign land.
But the whistleblower on the dirty workings of British firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) has shifted focus on the Romanian’s death in 2012, six months before the 2013 General Election.
ALSO READ: ‘We made mistakes’- Facebook's Zuckerberg
Chris Wylie, who succeeded Muresan as a political strategist, has exposed how CA influenced the divisive messaging in the last two presidential elections in Kenya and several other countries.
“I did not know this at the time when I joined, but my predecessor was just found dead in a hotel room. That is why they had a vacancy. I can’t say he was murdered. He died in his hotel room,” Wylie said.
Wylie is at the centre of the expose that has revealed the involvement of the shadowy firm in influencing campaigns in several countries. He said he regretted helping set up CA.
In his apology, he said he was sorry for having played a “pivotal role in setting up a company that I think has done a lot of harm to the democratic process in a lot of countries”, including Kenya.
Avoid fake news! Subscribe to the Standard SMS service and receive factual, verified breaking news as it happens. Text the word 'NEWS' to 22840
Mure?an died in September 2012, six months before the 2013 presidential elections in which Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner, beating his main challenger, Raila Odinga.
No information was made available about Muresan’s death at the time or his specific role in shaping the upcoming political contest.
He was an only child of a former Romanian Agriculture minister, Iona Avram Muresan, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for embezzlement.
According to Romania ambassador to Nairobi, Julia Pataki, Muresan’s family opted to keep the cause of his death private.
ALSO READ: IBM calls on responsible use of public data
“That is privileged information which I cannot share. I have to respect the request of the family that the cause of death is confidential,” she said.
Unlike in Kenya, where such deaths are usually the subject of a public inquest, she added, families in Romania can choose how they wish to treat the death of their kin.
British telecommunications
At the time of his death, Romania’s Foreign Ministry reported that Mure?an was working with a British telecommunications company and had been in Kenya for a while.
“He had not yet registered his presence on Kenyan territory with the Romanian diplomatic mission. The same source shows that after the police arrived, the body was taken by an undertaker company for an autopsy,” the ministry said.
The results of the postmortem were never made public.
Cambridge Analytica executives have boasted about using data to drive political campaigns.
ALSO READ: Behind the propaganda machine in Uhuru win
Similar tactics were employed in the vote by Britain to leave the European Union and delivering victory for President Donald Trump in the US.
Read more at: Revealed: Mysterious death of data analyst who worked for Uhuru campiagn
By Moses Michira | Published Thu, March 22nd 2018 at 08:03, Updated March 22nd 2018 at 11:42 GMT +3 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
Dan Muresan’s death in a Nairobi hotel was until yesterday just another case of a man dying in a foreign land.
But the whistleblower on the dirty workings of British firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) has shifted focus on the Romanian’s death in 2012, six months before the 2013 General Election.
ALSO READ: ‘We made mistakes’- Facebook's Zuckerberg
Chris Wylie, who succeeded Muresan as a political strategist, has exposed how CA influenced the divisive messaging in the last two presidential elections in Kenya and several other countries.
“I did not know this at the time when I joined, but my predecessor was just found dead in a hotel room. That is why they had a vacancy. I can’t say he was murdered. He died in his hotel room,” Wylie said.
Wylie is at the centre of the expose that has revealed the involvement of the shadowy firm in influencing campaigns in several countries. He said he regretted helping set up CA.
In his apology, he said he was sorry for having played a “pivotal role in setting up a company that I think has done a lot of harm to the democratic process in a lot of countries”, including Kenya.
Avoid fake news! Subscribe to the Standard SMS service and receive factual, verified breaking news as it happens. Text the word 'NEWS' to 22840
Mure?an died in September 2012, six months before the 2013 presidential elections in which Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner, beating his main challenger, Raila Odinga.
No information was made available about Muresan’s death at the time or his specific role in shaping the upcoming political contest.
He was an only child of a former Romanian Agriculture minister, Iona Avram Muresan, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for embezzlement.
According to Romania ambassador to Nairobi, Julia Pataki, Muresan’s family opted to keep the cause of his death private.
ALSO READ: IBM calls on responsible use of public data
“That is privileged information which I cannot share. I have to respect the request of the family that the cause of death is confidential,” she said.
Unlike in Kenya, where such deaths are usually the subject of a public inquest, she added, families in Romania can choose how they wish to treat the death of their kin.
British telecommunications
At the time of his death, Romania’s Foreign Ministry reported that Mure?an was working with a British telecommunications company and had been in Kenya for a while.
“He had not yet registered his presence on Kenyan territory with the Romanian diplomatic mission. The same source shows that after the police arrived, the body was taken by an undertaker company for an autopsy,” the ministry said.
The results of the postmortem were never made public.
Cambridge Analytica executives have boasted about using data to drive political campaigns.
ALSO READ: Behind the propaganda machine in Uhuru win
Similar tactics were employed in the vote by Britain to leave the European Union and delivering victory for President Donald Trump in the US.
Read more at: Revealed: Mysterious death of data analyst who worked for Uhuru campiagn
