The Council of Governors (CoG) on Wednesday, September 18, launched a scathing attack on the All Africa Advisors (AAA) pollsters after their controversial ranking of governors.
In a statement signed by CoG chair, Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, the governors trashed the results by the London-based company stating that it was not in their place to conduct the ranking.
The governors argued that the pollster did not follow the procedures outlined in the Statistics (Amendment) Act, No. 16 of 2019.
The Act requires any agency interested in conducting a survey in the country to seek the approval of the Kenya National Accreditation Service before commencing, something the CoG claims the pollster ignored.
The statement further said that despite the claims that the AAA had handed all county governments self-assessment questionnaires, none of the governors had received them.
This, the governors claimed, was enough evidence that AAA's only intention was to malign the leadership in the country.
In the statement, the governors also called out the company for ranking Kenya as the 7th most dangerous country to live in the world in a past poll, ignoring obvious war-torn countries.
However, this claim was found to be inaccurate by our newsdesk since the pollster responsible for the poor ranking of Kenya was InterNations, an organisation that provides information to people living outside their home countries.
"This shows that AAA is a company determined to destroy the image of the country and the counties. The council of governors is equally aware that this is a political strategy to malign the leadership in the counties," the statement reads.
He urged Kenyans to ignore that list stating that the 47 counties in Kenya are not comparable as each bears individual success stories and challenges.
In the controversial ranking, Machakos governor Alfred Mutua emerged victorious, beating Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, Nairobi's Mike Sonko, Makueni's Prof. Kivutha Kibwana, and Mombasa's Ali Hassan Joho in that order.
Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu was ranked as the worst-performing governor by the firm, which specializes in commercial and developmental projects in Africa.
It further pointed out that infrastructure development was the topmost priority for most constituents and had the highest impact on satisfaction levels and perception of county government effectiveness.
