KENYA: MPs have changed the law to give them absolute control over the billions of shillings allocated to the Constituency Development Fund.
Members of the National Assembly
The MPs, on Tuesday night, also stopped the Fund Manager from being the secretary to the CDF committee because that position made him a “superpower”.
The Fund Manager is the officer sent to the constituencies to keep an eye on the money on behalf of the national government.
This financial year, all the 290 constituencies will share Sh20.9 billion.
In the night-time amendments, shortly before the MPswent on recess, the MPs also changed the law to give them a freehand to employ “as many people as the money allows” to do menial jobs more so when it comes to specific CDF projects.
Mischief
The chair of the parliamentary CDF committee Moses Lessonnet (MP for Eldama Ravine) moved the amendments to lock county governments out of the kitty. He also said the Fund Manager had no business having the three roles.
“He’s has the authority to incur expenditure; he is also the mandatory signatory; plus he is also the secretary to the CDF committee. We cannot allow that. Let him stay with two roles,” Lessonet told The Standard a day after MPs approved the changes.
“Because he is the one writing minutes, he needs just two people to withdraw money after he doctors the minutes to reflect whatever mischief they want to perform. We need to spread the control.”
That means the Fund Manager will just have very little say on what goes on in the CDF projects.
It was a rare show of legislative unity as the MPs quietly published the CDF (amendment) Bill on Friday last week and steamrolled it through the House four days later — without the constitutional requirement of public participation in lawmaking.
On the same day that it was read the first time — ten days before it reached legislative maturity — it was debated, amended and approved. That was record time.
It was one way in the House: Mr Lessonet proposed the amendments; the matter would be put to a vote by the presiding chair Tom Kajwang’ (Ruaraka) and the MPs just shouted “aye”. It took less than 20 minutes.
The move raises eyebrows about the motive considering the bulk of the amendments were made to give them absolute control over the money in the constituencies.
Other Bills, such as the VAT Bill, have been in the House for over a month, but were only approved Tuesday night after intense lobbying by the Government.
CDF audit
On the CDF, the amendments were incentive enough for the cash-strapped MPs, who have publicly complained about the delay of their pay, allowances and grants.
Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma also joined the amendments with a call to have three-quarters of the CDF money shared equally, and the remaining quarter based on the poverty index.
The amendment to remove the cap on a maximum of five employees under the CDF committee means MPscan employ as many people as possible to do their job.
Six per cent of those allocations to the constituencies — between Sh2.5 million and Sh10 million per constituency — in the current financial year will be spent on administrative and operating costs.
Mr Davis Adieno, a manager with Development Initiative, and who has been auditing CDF spending, said the watering down of the powers of the Fund Manager was meant to give the lawmakers a tighter stranglehold on the money.
By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU, The Standard
