Legislators seek ways to save pet constituency fund

Members of Parliament are meeting to save the Constituency Development Fund.

The meeting comes a few days before lawyers representing the MPs and the fund file an appeal against a High Court ruling that outlawed the fund.
The one-day retreat at Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi will wrestle with ways to save the fund from being abolished.

The High Court ruled that the fund was a duplication of state work and interfered with division of revenue between the national and county governments.
The court gave one year during which the fund should be wound up or made to comply with the Constitution.

But the legal team acting on behalf of Parliament and the fund’s board argue that the court’s verdict was based on a misinterpretation of facts and of the law.

The lawyers intend to ask the Court of Appeal to give MPs more time than one year.

The options on the table are to align the law with the Constitution, making the fund a conditional grant from the national government or renaming the fund and entrenching it in the Constitution.

Constitutional lawyer Wachira Maina has told the MPs: “I have a lot of sympathy for fund because it is a good thing but there are important constitutional questions that need to be settled,” he said.

ABOLISH FUND

He told the legislators at the retreat sponsored by Suny Kenya that they could abolish the fund or end the role of MPs in it.

He has also suggested renaming it the National Government Constituency Development and restricting it to national government functions.

Lawyer Gatonye Waweru said if argued properly in the Court of Appeal, the legal team can demonstrate that the High Court ruling was wrong. “There are clear grounds of misinterpretation and misrepresentation of facts and the law by the High Court,” he said.

Kiharu MP Irungu Kangata, however, said it is more of a political than a legal problem.

Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo, Kitutu Chache MP Jimmy Angwenyi, Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno and others argued that the Court erred with regard to MPs’ role in the fund.

The chairman of the fund’s National Assembly committee, Mr Moses Lessonet, said members would find a way.

Mr Lessonet said despite the High Court ruling, scrapping the fund would disrupt projects being implemented such as bursaries.

Only a handful of MPs- about 65 out of the 290 constituency elected members, however, turned up for the meeting. Money to the constituency fund has recently increased after lobbying by MPs.

In the current financial year, Sh33 billion has been set aside, up from the previous Sh23 billion. The MPs want it further increased to Sh36 billion.

In total, Sh172 billion has been allocated to the fund in the last 11 years.