Pamoja Africa Alliance defends NG-CDF, slams Raila's abolition push

Speaker of the Senate Amason Kingi during the requiem Mass at the AIC Church Milimani in Nairobi on February 27, 2025. [Boniface Okendo, Standard] Pamoja Africa Alliance PAA on Thursday said MPs were ready to face ODM leader Raila Odinga in the plebiscite to defend the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF). The Senate Speaker Amason Kingi-led party said NG-CDF has spurred development and educated millions of students in rural areas, and abolishing it would deprive the most vulnerable of help. PAA Secretary General Kenneth Tungule said Raila should listen to other Kenyans instead of disparaging MPs as corrupt despite existing proof of NG-CDF projects across the country. "Before 2002, rural schools were dilapidated, and the rate of school dropout was high. In Ganze, it was after the late Joseph Kingi became the MP that we started to witness development because of CDF, even though we were earlier represented by Katana Ngala," said Tungule. Tungule who is Ganze MP termed Raila's push for the abolition of NG-CDF as dictatorial, and asked the ODM leader to allow Kenyans to ventilate on the issue during the public participation. He said PAA was opposed to the scrapping of NG-CDF, the Senate Oversight Fund and the National Government Affirmative Action Fund, saying it would deny Kenyans government services. He spoke in Ganze during the distribution of NGCDF bursary cheques worth Sh10 million to 1,000 students. Tungule said the funds were complementing the roles of devolution. "These funds are part of devolution since constituencies exist within counties, and it is a right of every Kenyan to be served by their elected leaders, and for a leader like Raila Odinga to push to have these funds abolished is taking us back to the dictatorial era," he said. He added that as a party they were ready for a referendum as proposed by Raila and that they have confidence that Kenyans will overwhelmingly vote for the funds to be entrenched in the Constitution. "What is more shocking is that BABA wants the funds to be dissolved and directed to counties, and I think he might have a personal interest in counties; that is why he is pushing his agenda. We are ready for the referendum so that we can show him how Kenyans have embraced the funds, and through public participation in the proposed Constitution Amendment Bill Number 4 of 2025, Kenyans want the allocations to be increased from the current 2.5 per cent of the total budget to 5.5 per cent," he added. The former Prime Minister has sustained his push to have Members of Parliament surrender the NG-CDF to the counties and referred to the ongoing public participation by legislators to have the fund entrenched in the Constitution as an effort in futility and wants it subjected to a national referendum. "NGCDF is about 2.5 per cent of the total budget. 2.5 per cent is substantial because it would increase the allocation to counties from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent. CDF should be the responsibility of county governments. Members of Parliament are supposed to do three things: representation, legislation, and oversight," he noted. His remarks come amid ongoing public participation forums by MPs on the proposed Constitution Amendment Bill Number 4 of 2025, which seeks to entrench the NG-CDF, the Senate Oversight Fund, and the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) in the Constitution.

Pamoja Africa Alliance defends NG-CDF, slams Raila's abolition push

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