Standard Media Group is on the spot once again after the media house was duped on Boxing Day by a fake opinion poll on the approval rating of governors in their first 100 days in office.
The opinion poll which ranked Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana and Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru as the best performing county chiefs in their first 100 days in office was widely criticized in the social media for lacking credibility.
The little known pollsters, Polls Kenya which never featured anywhere or conducted any polls during and before the August 8th general elections surprisingly failed to give details of the methodology used to conduct the opinion poll as required by law but the Standard Media which among the leading media houses in the country published the story without even seeking for details of the poll.
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, Kiambu Governor Fedinand Waititu, Muranga Governor Mwangi Wa iria and their Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho were ranked poorly with the least approval rating on their first 100 days in office. The poll was conducted on the 12, December 2017.
However sources at the Standard Media indicate people linked to Waiguru and his close associate who once worked together with her in the same office. A Mr Peter Kariuki who has been nominated for Nairobi City County Secretary’s post is alleged to be jointly (with Waiguru) behind the poll in which she was highly ranked despite financial scandals which already rocked Kirinyaga County including the Sh 19 million President Uhuru Kenyatta’s campaign kitty that was embezzled under her watch. Kariuki’s appointment is pending after the Nairobi County Assembly failed to approve his name before going for the long Christmas recess. Recently Kariuki financed and masterminded the mobilisation of 80 members of the Sonko rescue team to March to city to protest against Governor Sonko for alleged non payment of 8months salary a move which angered over 2000 genuine Sonko rescue team volunteers who also protested and refuted claims that they were not paid.
When contacted for reaction, Sonko’s aides told Kenya Today the poll is not credible since counties had not received sharable revenue for development projects from the National government in the first 100 days.
According to Sonko’s official Facebook page, his administration has achieved a number of goals since assuming office. Top on his achievements is the streamlined revenue collection at City Hall which has ended perennial strikes by county workers since they’re now paid their salaries on time and from their own revenue source. City Hall officials also say Nairobi County Government is the only one out of 47 counties that pays it’s staff from revenue collection without depending on the national government’s allocation.
City Hall workers salaries stand at Sh 800 million, but during the reigns of former governor Evans Kidero the workers were never paid on time because all revenue was collected in cash and embezzled at source by cartels leading to frequent strikes.
The Nairobi County Government prides itself for introduction of cashless system which managed to end corruption at City Hall by 90% leading to an improved revenue collection.
Sonko has also outlined the purchase of new 28 fire engines for every Nairobi sub-County as a milestone achievement in his first 100 days. Another achievement pointed out by Sonko is the introduction of the data Center at City Hall which he says will help to curb corruption and weed out ghost workers.
However the biggest headache to Sonko’s administration is the garbage menace which has been blamed on cartels demanding to be paid over Sh 1.2 billion from fictitious tender deals awarded to ghost firms by Kidero’s government. The ghost firms are said to be behind the dumping of garbage in city streets in a bid to sabotage Sonko’s county government.
But Sonko on his Facebook page has now promised that this will come to an end with his new idea of devolving garbage collection and awarding tenders to youth groups at ward level by January 2018.
Governor Waititu has also been praised for awarding free insurance to Kiambu locals.
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