Lead image for Top-ranked governors back Senate report as bottom counties question ranking criteria.
A fresh showdown is brewing between governors and the Senate after a section of county chiefs rejected Parliament's inaugural fiscal performance scorecard, arguing that the rankings fail to capture the realities of running devolved governments and risk painting an unfair picture of service delivery across the country.
The pushback follows the launch of the County Fiscal Performance Measurement Index (CFPMI) by the Parliamentary Budget Office, which ranked Embu as Kenya's best-managed county while placing Kisumu, Kakamega, Busia, Bomet and Nairobi among the country's poorest fiscal performers.
The report assessed all 47 counties using seven public finance indicators, including budget implementation efficiency, development expenditure, own-source revenue, wage bill management, pending bills, county assembly expenditure and audit outcomes.
While Senate Speaker Amason Kingi described the index as the first scientific tool for measuring how prudently counties manage public resources, governors have questioned both the methodology and the conclusions, insisting the rankings overlook factors such as inherited financial obligations, delayed disbursement of funds from the National Treasury, the size of county budgets and the nature of recurrent spending.
Narok Governor Patrick Ole Ntutu, whose county ranked second overall behind Embu, backed the Senate's assessment, saying the results accurately reflected county performance. "Very well done. I totally agree with the Senate index," Mr Ntutu said.
Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika also welcomed the report after her county was ranked ninth nationally, describing it as validation of her administration's focus on financial discipline and development.
"Nakuru County is officially a top county," she said, hailing the county's placement among the country's top performers.
Ms Kihika said Nakuru invested Sh3.9 billion in development projects during the financial year while emerging as one of the country's best performers in wage bill management, ranking second nationally with a score of 0.982, well within the Public Finance Management Act's 35 per cent ceiling.