Scrapping CDF will affect millions

The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was established in 2003 through an Act of Parliament (The Constituency Development Fund, Act, 2003).

It followed a protracted process beginning October 2000 when a motion was discussed and passed by Parliament calling for the establishment of such a fund.

Two years later, the motion was transformed into a bill and effectively passed into law in October 2002, only to be assented to by the next president, Mwai Kibaki, in 2003.

The fund is at least 2.5 per cent of the ordinary revenue raised by the Government each year.

The annual CDF allocation has been increasing each year in relation to the cumulative increases in revenue by year.

The CDF law, like any other legislation, had its real intent in the memorandum of objects and reasons normally appended together with schedules in bills.

The memorandum is clear that the effects of the legislation was to ensure that a portion of the annual Government budget normally devoted to general development in the country is set aside and directed to constituency-based projects in a bid to re-focus on the constituency as a unit of development in an effort to alleviate poverty.

In the memorandum, it is further stated that Parliament recognises the fact that the war against poverty had to be taken to the grassroots level through implementation of community-based projects.

It appreciated the need to relieve MPs from the heavy demands of fundraising for projects that ought to be financed through the consolidated fund.

It envisaged that by so legislating, MPs would have the chance to focus on long-term planning for development of their constituencies and to effectively ensure participation in national issues.

The whole gamut of objectives and reasons was justified that in the eyes of the electorate, MPs are seen as the people responsible for steering the course of development.

It also justified the need to preserve the established Kenyan concept of community development and the value of promoting the community participation and sense of ownership for projects once completed.

The existence of the Fund was rationalised on three main grounds: promotion of equity in the allocation of resources, appropriate application of public resources and cost effectiveness.

It is argued that allocation of monies to all constituencies ensures that remote and underdeveloped sub-counties whose constituents have little voice at the national level receive a portion of public resources.

And these are resources that they would otherwise have missed out on.

It was clear and generally accepted that planning and a development arrangement at the counties has not only been formal but also illegal to result in the pile of inequalities visible all over the country.

Before 1983, national planning processes were all done at the centre.

Everything else including decisions on such small things as cattle dips for villages were arrived at in Nairobi. With the introduction of the District Focus for Rural Development in 1983, the intention was to have a participatory planning process from the grassroots.

The intention sounded noble but was structurally deficient.

It ended up with too many levels; increased red tape, consumed a lot of time, lost people’s priorities, delayed and skewed development activities.

It is finally moribund.

No clear, national replacement has been thought of.

The foregoing therefore became a good justification for the CDF and scrapping it would no doubt have adverse implications on millions of Kenyans at the grass-root level.

The writer is the Wajir South MP