This archive report was first published on 19 September 2019.
Published on September 19, 2019, a survey by All Africa Advisors (AAA) ranked the performance of governors across Kenya's 47 counties. However, the Council of Governors (CoG) has rejected the survey, calling it a political strategy to malign the leadership of counties.
CoG Chairperson Wycliffe Oparanya signed a statement criticizing the pollster, saying county governments are unique and cannot be compared using a homogeneous performance criteria. "A homogeneous performance criteria cannot be applied across the 47 county governments," the statement read.
CoG disputed AAA's claim that it had administered a self-assessment tool to all counties, requiring each county government to provide evidence to support their scores on the questionnaires. "We would like to clarify that to date, the Council of Governors, which is the coordinating body of all the 47 county governments, has not received the alleged questionnaire and in effect none of the county governments have," Oparanya said.
CoG pointed out that the Statistics (Amendment) Act, 2019, streamlines data collection and processing at the national and county levels, requiring any agency wishing to conduct a survey to seek approval from the board established under the Act.
CoG demanded an apology from AAA, stating that the company has no locus to conduct a survey in the country with Kenya's interest at heart. "The council is of the considered view that the company has no locus to purport to have conducted a survey in the country with Kenya's interest at heart," Oparanya said.
CoG also criticized AAA for ranking Kenya as the seventh most dangerous country to live in, while ignoring other war-torn countries. "This shows that AAA is a company determined to destroy the image of the country and counties. The Council of Governors is equally aware that this is a political strategy to malign the leadership in the counties," Oparanya said.
CoG threatened legal action against AAA if it fails to apologize. "We demand an unequivocal apology from Mr Steven Kanyatte and his company, failure to which the council shall take legal action," Oparanya said.
