Members of the National Assembly now want to change the law to keep county governments out of CDF management.
Members of the National Assembly in the new chambers
The law stipulates CDF money is part of the money allocated to county governments, but the MPs now say the money is strictly for constituencies.
The chairman of the CDF committee Moses Lessonet tabled the amendment to the CDF Act saying it had “erroneously” categorised the CDF money as part of the “additional revenues to county governments”.
“The spirit of the Act is that the fund be administered at constituency level as it arises from the powers conferred upon Parliament to impose a charge on the Consolidated Fund,” he said.
The move is just to shield the CDF from the county governments, who have argued the role of MPs is that of representation, oversight and legislation and therefore they had no business getting into the implementation of projects and actual spending of government funds.
Governors and senators have been pushing for the money under CDF to be included in the budget for the counties and be administered from the counties through the governors and the county executives.
The total kitty to all county governments is Sh210 billion, while the full amount to the CDF for this financial year is Sh21 billion.
Apart from the CDF, other funds that are spent at the grassroots include the Youth Development Fund and the Women Fund.
By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU, The Standard
