Resist MPs’ schemes to retain CDF control – Business Daily
The Judiciary and the Executive should resist push by Members of Parliament to retain the Constituency Development Fund after the Supreme Court declared it illegal.
Newly elected legislators say they plan to ignore the decision since it outlawed the CDF Act of 2013 and not the current law under which each constituency gets at least Sh137 million.
MPs tweaked the law and added a prefix NG-CDF (National Government Constituency Development Fund) in 2015 in a bid to keep the fund after their role in its operations raised conflict of interest concerns.
In addition to their representation role, MPs are supposed to exercise oversight over the Executive and legislate. Allocating them funds by the same government to spend on development at the constituency level is misaligned with these roles.
Such funds ought to be integrated and subsumed within the structures of either the county or the national government.
The newly elected MPs should stick to their roles and respect the Supreme Court decision. They should have vied for executive roles like governorship if they wanted to run government budgets.
