Legislators last-minute effort to save unconstitutional CDF

Lawmakers have constituted a five-member legal team to rescue the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) from dying after it was declared unconstitutional by the courts.

The five members are Otiende Amollo (Rarieda), Tom Kajwang (Ruaraka), George Murugara (Tharaka), John Makali (Kanduyi) and Mwengi Mutuse (Kibwezi West). At a Kamukunji (informal sitting) held last week, the MPs tasked the team to come up with the necessary legal instruments that will be used to ensure that NG-CDF is entrenched in the constitution to ensure it continues operating.

NG-CDF has so far received over Sh522.57 billion cumulatively in the last 20 years since its implementation under former President Kibaki’s administration.

Said a member who did not want to be quoted: “we have told the team to ensure that NG-CDF does not die. This one, we will fight to the end.” Slammed Raila The decision of the lawmakers came hours before Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga slammed the lawmakers over the current stand on the Division Revenue Bill currently before a mediation committee.

Addressing the press on Friday, Raila claimed that the lawmakers are to blame for the impasse. He accused them of plotting a power grab by depriving counties of their ‘dues’ and instead allocating themselves funds for the NG-CDF and Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF).

He said: “A major standoff is currently underway in the country between our two houses of parliament National Assembly and the Senate, on the surface this standoff is about the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill 2024 but in reality, it is about a power grab and an assault on the Constitution that members of the National Assembly want to execute and which amounts to the betrayal of the people and an overhaul of our structure of governance.”

And added: “The National Government Constituencies Funds and the National Government Affirmative Funds which are in the hands of the members of the National Assembly, these funds give the MPs the powers to conceive, implement projects and oversight them at the same time.”

Raila regretted that having managed to entrench the said anomaly, the lawmakers are now attempting to determine the amount of money counties get despite clear constitutional provisions on the revenue. Abrogation of constitution

He said: “Because they want to have their way with the abrogation of the constitution and getting their pound of flesh with regard to NGCDF, the Senate and the National Assembly are unable to agree on something the law is so clear on about sharing of the revenue between the National Government and the county governments,” he said.

The 18-member Mediation Committee held its second meeting last Tuesday to try and unlock the deadlock over the funding dispute but were unable to agree on the way forward after members of the National Assembly issued fresh demands that they want to be met before the impasse is addressed.

MPs told their counterparts from the senate to engage the governors to withdraw the case surrounding the Sh10.5 billion Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) to allow the talks to bear fruits.

The recent remarks by Raila come at a time when MPs have renewed their push to have the fund entrenched in the constitution after a three-judge bench comprising Justices Kanyi Kimondo, Roselyn Aburili and Mugure Thande declared NG-CDF Act 2015 as unconstitutional.

They observed that MPs were encroaching on the roles set aside for the county governments. They also gave the current NGCDF a gross period of one year and eight months to allow it to conclude the pending work before it ceases to exit on June 26, 2026.

The decision by the court came despite the National Assembly amending the Act (2015) in 2022 and 2023 to try to beat a similar declaration of a 2013 Act that suffered a similar fate.