National Assembly Select Committee seek more Constituency Development Fund

By ERIC LUNGAI

The National Assembly Select Committee on the Constituency Development Fund has said it will push for a 10 per cent increase of the kitty.

The committee said funds will remain under area MPs to ensure continuity. The chairman of the committee Moses Lessonet , who is also Eldama Ravine MP, confirmed that they are not in any negotiations to let go off the kitty.

“We are committed to protecting CDF because it is the only cash that is the most devolved and reaches all the people. In fact, we are going to work on ways of increasing it by ten per cent,” Lessonet said.

Lessonet said that CDF is here to stay and MPs will amend the Constitution to anchor it properly as well as increase the allocation.

Lessonet was speaking in Emuhaya constituency when he led the committee in touring the projects that were funded by CDF in the last five-years.

The committee said the many projects in Emuhaya that had been funded by the CDF indicated how useful the funds were to the people at the grassroots level.

Lessonet was accompanied by MPs, Yusuf Chanzu (Vihiga), Wilbur Ottichilo (Emuhaya), Chris Omulele (Luanda), and other members of the committee.

No track record

Chanzu criticised the proposal by some leaders that the CDF kitty be overseen by the counties, saying those making the calls have no development record.

“Most of those who now want the MPs to relinquish CDF to them have no development records to boast of. Most of them under-performed when they were MPs and looted the cash and want to continue doing the same,” he said.