Top presidential candidates poor managers: CDF

Written By:Kendagor Obadiah,    Posted: Mon, Sep 24, 2012

The weighting factor applied to the constituency contribution to poverty is the ratio of urban-roral poor population derived from the 1999 population and housing census Top presidential aspirants in Kenya have been found to be the poorest managers of tax payers money. In a performance score card report prepared by the National Tax payers Association which sampled Constituency Development Fund (CDF) projects for constituencies represented by nine presidential candidates, Peter Kenneth of Kenya National Congress representing the Gatanga Constituency, Murang'a County emerged the best performer in managing CDF funds, while Orange Democratic Movement's (ODM) Raila Odinga representing Langata constituency, Nairobi City county emerged the poorest manager of the CDF funds of all the presidential candidates. Out of three CDF projects assessed in Gatanga, exemplary performance in terms of  timely delivery, quality of work done and prudence in use of allocated funds placed Kenneth at 91 percent none of his projects have stalled neither were there reports of mismanagement of funds allocated. Coming second was Eldoret North Mp William Ruto and Sabatia MP Musalia Mudavadi who tied in terms of awarded scores 62%. Most of their CDF projects were complete and currently in use, save for a few projects which have stalled. Others are still ongoing while others failed to meet the required standards. Out of six projects sampled for each one of them, they managed to secure 62% each.  Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta would be the third qualifying candidate with a mean score of 60%. The NTA sampled three of his CDF projects were sampled in which one of them stalled and was abandoned. Two of the projects are complete although there were reservations on the quality of work done in one of the projects. Gichugu Member of Parliament Martha Karua who is also eying presidency has a mean score of 59% hence placing her in fourth position. Three of her 6 sampled projects were successfully completed and are in use. Two of them were abandoned and one of them is still ongoing. Eugene Wamalwa of Saboti constituency had a mean score of 56% having successfully completed 3 out six sampled projects. Three of the projects are still ongoing and not in use, but issues of the quality of work done have emerged. Basing on this, Eugene Wamalwa comes at the 5th position. In the sixth position is Vice president Kalonzo Musyoka. Out of his six projects assessed, the VP can manage a pastry 51% but some of his projects were well done. One project stalled completely while some are still ongoing. The worst performing candidate is the ODM leader Raila Odinga. None of his sampled projects went beyond 45%. There was a ghost project in the constituency whose cost was placed at 8.3 million. This only existed in the list of projects but what was on the ground can be estimated to cost Ksh.  350,000 The PM only managed a mean score of 39%. CDF was established through the Constituencies Development Fund Act, 2003 as amended in 2007 with the goal of fighting poverty at the grassroots level. To achieve this goal the CDF ensures that constituencies receive 2.5% of the government's annual ordinary revenue, besides monies to be received from other sources by the CDF Board.