Opposition: Infrastructure Fund linked to Ruto's campaigns

United Opposition leaders led by Kalonzo Musyoka address the Press on the proposed National Infrastructure Fund in Nairobi on March 5, 2026, 2025. [Kanyiri Wahito]

The Opposition has linked the proposed National Infrastructure Fund (NIF) with President William Ruto’s re-election plans, claiming he intends to use the money covertly for campaigns to retain power in 2027.

Leaders of the United Alternative Government (UAG), as they now call themselves, also demanded an explanation after National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi’s admitted he had misled the National Assembly regarding the legal status of the proposed Fund.

The Opposition members, led by Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper) Rigathi Gachagua (Democracy for Citizens Party), Eugene Wamalwa (Democratic Alliance Party (DAP-K) and Justin Muturi (Democratic Party), claimed The National Infrastructure Fund Bill, 2026 is Ruto’s secret plan to establish a fund outside the regulations of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), enabling potential misuse of resources for personal gain.

They argued that the country’s infrastructure deficit is not due to institutional scarcity but to execution failures, procurement corruption and fiscal opacity, warning that adding a new fund would increase dysfunction and reduce oversight.

“What we know is that they are creating a fund that will bypass Parliamentary approval and oversight and instead be used to finance their election campaign. They want Sh5 trillion that is neither approved by Parliament nor audited by the Auditor General,” Gachagua claimed.

The Opposition noted that by 2024, the country had over 60 public funds operating outside the Consolidated Fund, with many overlapping mandates and weak oversight. They maintained that creating another fund would only serve illegal purposes.

“Article 206 of the Constitution is unambiguous: all public revenue must flow through the Consolidated Fund and be subject to parliamentary appropriation. The proposed Fund risks creating a semi-autonomous financial reservoir where Cabinet-level officials can deploy significant public resources without annual parliamentary approval ,  the very arrangement Article 206 was designed to prevent,” said Kalonzo.

The Opposition also took issue with Mbadi, who swore an affidavit stating he had misled Parliament about the status of the fund, claiming it had been registered under Article 206 as a limited liability company.

“A CS who assures Parliament of a Sh5 trillion vehicle’s constitutional status, then swears under oath to its private, unincorporated nature, has not made a technical error, he has misled the legislature on a matter of the highest fiscal and constitutional consequence under Article 153(4) of the Constitution,” the leaders said.

They demanded that Mbadi be summoned back to the National Assembly to reconcile his parliamentary statements with his court testimony and urged MPs to reject the Bill, saying, “Parliament cannot pass legislation premised on information the responsible Cabinet Secretary has admitted, under oath, was misleading.”

Offering an alternative to the proposed fund, the Opposition suggested the government deepen its infrastructure bond market and reform the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework.

The government should also enforce fiscal discipline by rationalising the recurrent budget, which has grown 63 per cent from Sh3.1 trillion to Sh4.9 trillion despite low single-digit GDP growth, and strengthen procurement oversight at project inception, where the greatest losses occur, as seen in the SHA, SGR, ADANI, CBC and Rironi-Mau Summit Road scandals.

The Opposition warned that if the National Assembly passes the Bill, they would seek court redress, accusing the Executive of capturing Parliament.