MPs, Senators in court over CDF law

The National Assembly, the Senate and the Attorney General want the High Court to dismiss a case filed by a group of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) challenging the legality of a new law on the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) saying it lacks merit.

Through state counsel Mwangi Njoroge, the court heard that the National Government Constituency Development Fund( NGCDF) is nationwide and benefits a lot of people across the nation and if scrapped there is a high probability that socio-economic rights of wananchi will be violated.

In an affidavit sworn by Eldama Ravine MP Moses Lessonet, the intention of NGCDF is to achieve the goals set out in the Constitution.

“That there will be no prejudice suffered or harm occasioned if this court declines to grant the orders sought by the petitioners,” stated the MP in the affidavit.

In the case,  the petitioners,Wanjiru Gikonyo and Cornelius Oduor Opuot, want the court to declare NGCDF unconstitutional on grounds that it creates a third level of government not contemplated in the Constitution.

MPs passed the NGCDF Act last year and made it a new organ of the national government after the court ruled that only counties were mandated to undertake development at the local level.

Report by Dzuya Walter