Treasury has allocated Sh58.8 billion to the
National Government Constituencies Development Fund, despite spirited
efforts to scrap the kitty.
National Treasury CS John Mbadi, while
presenting the 2025-26 national budget at Parliament Buildings, said the allocation
is in line with the government’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda to ensure equality across the country.
“To promote regional equity, reduce poverty and enhance
social development across the country, I propose Sh58.8 billion towards the
National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF),” he said.
The High Court has, however, directed the fund be scrapped.
In September last year, the High Court gave the National Assembly two years to
complete CDF projects, deeming the law under which it is anchored, unconstitutional.
The leeway expires in June next year.
The High Court said the NG-CDF Act, 2015, violated the principle of
separation of powers.
The 2015 Act was amended in 2022 and 2023 in an apparent bid to beat a
similar declaration of a 2013 Act that suffered a similar fate, with
unsuccessful appeals at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
A three-judge bench comprising justices Kanyi Kimondo, Mugure Thande and
Roselyne Aburili declared the Act unconstitutional, citing failure by
the National Assembly to consult the Senate when the Act was enacted.
The three, sitting at Nairobi’s Milimani law courts, said the fund and all
its projects, programmes and activities shall cease to operate on June 30,
2026.
The programme has been running since 2003.
MPs are, however, in the process of
enacting three funds into law, including NG-CDF, to cushion them from
perennial court actions.
Through the Constitution of Kenya
(Amendment) Bill, National Assembly Bill, 2025, MPs seeks to secure the legal
standing of the NG-CDF, the National Government Affirmative Action Fund
(NGAAF), and the Senate Oversight Fund.
The Bill is co-sponsored by Rarieda
MP Otiende Amollo and Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga.
Already, Parliament has conducted countrywide public
participation on the proposal that has received opposition from a number of
political figures, including ODM leader Raila Odinga and former Speaker Justin
Muturi.
