National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has directed research company, Infotrak, to appear before the House Education Committee over its latest survey on the performance of MPs.
The Speaker on Tuesday directed the Education and Research Committee to summon Infotrak chief executive officer Angela Ambitho within seven days to explain how her firm collected the data.
The directive followed an uproar by a section of lawmakers led by worst-ranked Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo. The lawmakers accused Infotrak of playing politics saying they were not consulted about the survey.
They also alleged that those who were consulted had been asked to pay bribes.
Millie Odhiambo also accused Ambitho of being used to malign women legislators who have better looks than her.
Speaker Muturi told the House that Ms Ambitho would present herself before the Education and Research Committee to explain the methodology used to rank MPs.
Muturi also instructed the committee chaired by Busia Woman Representative Florence Mutua to ensure that the parameters that Ms Ambitho will present, if any, have a bearing on the functions of an MP serving in the National Assembly.
“You can’t be calling people on the streets and asking them to rank MPs,” Speaker Muturi noted.
Ms Ambitho on Sunday said she used phone interviews to gather data on the performance of the 290 MPs from the single-member constituencies and 47 county woman representatives.
The poll was conducted between November and December 2019 and January 2020, with Infotrak posing only one question to voters: “How would you rate the overall performance of your governor, senator, Woman Rep, ward rep, and MP on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is extremely poor and 10 is excellent?”
