Jubilee MPs lead House to approve Budget estimates

National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee chairman Mutava Musyimi (left), Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich (holding briefcase), his Devolution counterpart Mwangi Kiunjuri (fourth right) and some MPs at Parliament in Nairobi on June 8, 2016. FILE PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE |

What you need to know:

  • President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto ordered MPs to pass the Budget estimates.
  • Jubilee leaders held a meeting with their MPs in a hotel where they instructed them to put on hold discussions on legality of CDF.

Jubilee MPs on Thursday led the National Assembly to approve the Sh 2 trillion 2016/2017 Budget plan, overturning an informal House agreement to delay the vote over a case on the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

MPs from the ruling coalition were obeying orders from President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, who instructed them to pass the Budget estimates at a meeting on Thursday at the Panafric Hotel in Nairobi.

Sources said the two leaders asked the MPs to approve the estimates and “put on hold discussions" on the CDF.

MPs had on Tuesday threatened to scuttle the approval of the proposals to protest a case challenging the legality of the constituency fund.

Debate was adjourned for two and a half hours to allow MPs time to discuss the implications of the case against the CDF.

They said the case threatened a fund that had helped bring development projects to the grassroots, with some of the MPs shouting “no CDF no Budget”.

(Editing by Joel Muinde)