S.C.L.’s research was expensive.
The company charged more than a million dollars to create a super sample, and in developing countries it was frequently outbid by better-known political firms, which promised their own winning strategies.
So Nix often looked for
outsider candidates with wealthy patrons.
“It was always going for the underdog,” the employee said.
S.C.L.’s candidate in Kenya’s 2013 Presidential election, Uhuru Kenyatta, was under indictment for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court and polling a distant second place in late 2012. (The charges were eventually dropped due to lack of evidence.) “Those are the people who you go for,” the employee said. In March, 2013, Kenyatta won the Kenyan Presidency, with 50.1 per cent of the vote.