Inside the fight to save NGCDF kitty

The National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) Chief Executive Officer Yusuf Mbuno has broken his silence on a court ruling that dealt the fund’s legitimization process an umpteenth blow.

This, after the High Court on Thursday stopped Parliament from forwarding to the President the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill 2025, which seeks to entrench three funds into the Constitution, for assent.

The Bill by legislators Samuel Chepkonga (Ainabkoi) and Otiende Amolo (Rarieda), introduced a proposal to amend the Constitution to entrench the NG-CDF kitty embed the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) into law, and simultaneously introducing a Senate Oversight Fund.

Mbuno has termed the ruling “a temporary stoppage of the much-needed' entrenchment of the NG-GDF kitty and went on to criticize the petitioners who moved to court to halt the process.

“As a country, we must look at the bigger picture. Those who are going to court to stop the process are not fighting me, they are not fighting MPs but the poor people who are the beneficiaries of the fund,” said Mbuno.

 While clarifying that the matter on the legality of NG-CDF was yet to be fully canvassed in court and that Thursday’s ruling was not an annulment of the Bill, he stated that the Fund has been an avenue for the needy to access education.

“You cannot talk about the technical issues (of the process) in court without looking at the benefits that have come with NG-CDF.”

And to quantify his remarks, he argued that since inception, the fund has ensured the establishment of over 3,000 new schools which have been built over the last 22 years, 61 new Kenya Medical training Colleges and 155 technical training Institutes -which have been instrumental in improving the skills of the youth set to join the job market.

In the health sector, the fund supports 30,000 families through contributions. There also 1.2 million learners who are dependent on the fund in order to pursue their education as they depend on bursaries each year.

“From where I sit, I do not understand those who went to court opposing the entrenchment of the NG-CDF through the Constitutional amendment Bill because it meant the enhancement of the Bill of Rights. Education is a key pillar to be supported by the fund,” reiterated Mbuno.

But on the flipside, Assistant Professor in Politics and International Relations at the United States International University (USIU), Njoki Wamai embraced the High Court’s ruling, arguing that the kitty needed to be yanked from the control of MPs.

Wamai agitated for a distinct separation of powers, arguing that the legislators should concentrate on their constitutional mandate to legislate and oversight.

“They (MPs)should turn themselves into development initiators. They however want to maintain the status quo with NG-CDF for their political survival and that’s why we have issues of replication of roles and inefficiencies within government,” she observed.

She subsequently proposed the introduction of a government body manned by the County governments where people apply for and distribute bursaries so that MPs can go back to their mandate.

“By doing so, Kenya will get better quality of MPs who are thinkers, not people who dish out money in constituencies for political survival,” added Wamai.

Notably, the kitty, which has become a legal battleground  over the years, is now on its last legs. It has until June 30 of next year to conclude its operations in line with a court directive.

The case against the kitty has pitted MPs who have continuously refused to accept its illegality, and the courts, which have defeated all attempts to rectify the fund’s status.

Further, unaddressed issues, including planned but unimplemented constituency development projects and unpaid pending bills, loom large as the NG-CDF approaches its closure.

A High Court ruling delivered by judges Kanyi Kimondo, Mugure Thande and Roselyn Aburili in September last year declared the NG-CDF Act unconstitutional for violating the principal of separation of powers, and over the failure of MPs to consult the Senate when the law was enacted.

“The National Government Development Constituency Fund (NG-CDF) as amended in 2022 and 2023 is hereby declared unconstitutional. NG-CDF and all its projects, programmes and its activities shall cease to operate on the stroke of midnight on June 30, 2026,” ruled the three-judge bench.

The matter is currently before the courts, which is expected to wholly determine it.

But previously, in an effort to save the fund, the MPs introduced the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill.