Waiguru to sue IPSOS over report ranking her second most corrupt

Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru says she will sue research firm IPSOS Synovate for releasing a survey report indicating that Kenyans perceive her as the second most corrupt in Kenya.

Addressing the media at Kagio town in Kirinyaga County, shortly after the report was unveiled on Wednesday, Waiguru rubbished the survey as political propaganda, accusing IPSOS of pushing a smear campaign against her.

“I will this say to IPSOS: Shame on you. Shame on you for pushing an agenda that you know very well is political. I have never been taken to court because of any matter regarding corruption. So you cannot come and say that I am the most corrupt,” said Waiguru, who was accompanied by Deputy Governor Peter Ndambiri and Kirinyaga MCAs.

“If they think they have any evidence on anyone on corruption. There is the DPP, they can take evidence there so that action can be taken instead of coming up with propaganda and saying it is Kenyans (opinion). Kenyans are not foolish.”

Unveiling the report, IPSOS Research Analyst Tom Wolf said they asked the participants: “More generally, who do Kenyans consider among all present and (still living) past leaders as “most corrupt?”

“Whereas former CS for Devolution and now Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru receives the most mentions in terms of being associated with a particular locus of corruption (the NYS), Deputy President William Ruto receives the most mentions in terms of “current and past leaders” perceived to be (or to have been) corrupt,” reads the survey report.

Deputy President William Ruto and Governor Waiguru were polled as the most corrupt at 33 percent and 31 percent respectively.

The survey was conducted between July 25 to August 2 with a sample size of 2016. According to IPSOS, participants were aged 18 years and above and were drawn from both urban and rural areas.

IPSOS further reported that Kenyans feel that the country is going in the wrong direction due to the cost of living, leadership and corruption.

Major scams mentioned by those who took part in the poll are the National Youth Scandal (NYS) and the Kenya Power graft cases.

In 2016, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission cleared Waiguru of any wrongdoing in the Ksh.791 million NYS scandal, saying there was no evidence linking her to the scam that occurred when she was Devolution Cabinet Secretary.