Constituents sue MP over fund misappropriation

By Evelyn Kwamboka

Wajir South MP Abdirahman Ali Hassan has been sued for allegedly misappropriating Sh78 million.

Some local residents moved to court claiming the money allocated to the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) since 2004 had been misappropriated.

Lady Justice Jessie Lesiit allowed four constituents led by Abdirahim Mohammed Abdille to institute a representative suit against their patron and the CDF committee.

Certifying the case as urgent, Lesiit also allowed them to advertise its institution to Wajir South constituents through a daily newspaper.

Through lawyer Kethi Kilonzo, Mr Abdille told the court that the MP and the CDF committee had allegedly failed to make public and available for inspection records of receipts of and disbursement to projects of funds, as required by the law.

cdf act unavailable

She told the court that arbitration, as a dispute resolution mechanism as per the CDF Act, was not available to her clients.

"The applicants have an equitable, legal and statutory right to an account of the receipts, disbursements and management of CDF projects," she said.

CDF consists of public funds allocated by the Government in its annual budget and Wajir South’s consists of a substantial portion of the 7.5 per cent annual allocation to all constituencies.

The court dismissed a Judicial Review application that had been filed by the constituents in 2008 on June 6, and the judge referred them to the dispute resolution mechanism under the CDF Act 2007.

In the new case, Abdille says in his affidavit that the resolution mechanism does not exist since the amendments to the Act have not yet commenced.

Elsewhere, a court in Kwale has acquitted a prison warder charged with sexually exploiting an 18-year-old woman and impregnating her.

Mr George Tayari Dalu, an officer at Kwale Prison, was released after Resident Magistrate David Ogembo said he was charged under the Children’s Act, yet the complainant was 18, the official age of consent.

He also said there were no medical reports to support the charges.

The accused was alleged to have had sex with the complainant on August 9, 2006 at the prison’s quarters in Kwale.