Patrick Ole Ntutu Ranks Best Performing First-Time Governor In New Politrack Africa Survey

• Narok Governor Patrick Ole Ntutu has been crowned the best-performing first-time county boss
• Governor Ntutu was followed closely by his Kakamega counterpart, Fernandes Barasa
• Female governors Gladys Wanga (Homa Bay) and Wavinya Ndeti (Machakos) closed the top five list

Narok Governor Patrick Ole Ntutu has been recognised as the best-performing first-time county boss by Politrack Africa.

The analysis examined the performance of first-time governors across 28 eligible counties in Kenya after approximately two years of their five-year term.

Based on his performance, 78.6% of Narok residents said they would vote the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party governor back to office should elections be held today.

Ntutu was followed closely by his Kakamega counterpart, Fernandes Barasa, who 75.4% of the electorate in his backyard agreed that they would re-elect him should elections be held today.

Coming in third was Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii, with 72.1%.

Female governors Gladys Wanga (Homa Bay) and Wavinya Ndeti (Machakos) closed the top five list of best-performing first-time governors with 70.1% and 68.4%, respectively.

The analysis by Politrack Africa covered key areas such as implementation, execution, and transparency of automated revenue collection systems, public participation and Compliance with county planning as per the County Governments Act 2012.

The analysis also covered key areas such as Governor performance satisfaction and the Proportion of Own-Source Revenue (OSR) raised.

“While the overall perception leans slightly positive, there is no strong statistical evidence of significantly above-average performance across the board,” said David Gitonga, a researcher at Politrack Africa.

In the survey executed between September 10 and September 17, 2024, some populous counties like Nairobi and Kiambu showed relatively low approval ratings.

The survey's execution was motivated by the need to gain insight into the current political landscape and assess the popularity of these new county leaders from the perspective of public perception.

“If these trends continue, approximately half of the governors (those above the median of 50.0%) might be in a favourable position for re-election, while the other half may face significant challenges,” Gitonga said.

Given that these are first-time governors, Gitonga observed that there's potential for significant changes in performance as they gain more experience. The following two years could see substantial shifts in these rankings.

The survey seen by TUKO.co.ke established that it employed Primary data, which was collected through (CATI) surveys in randomised wards across 28 eligible counties from a sample size of 5,800 respondents.

It also employed Secondary data from the Office of the Controller of Budget and the Auditor General.

According to the survey findings seen by TUKO.co.ke, a paltry 18.1% are confident that the new government, which includes leaders from the ODM party, will make drastic changes, propelling Ruto's administration to success.

Another 21.3% think the broad-based political experiment will fail, and 17.3% still need to decide.