MPs to challenge High Court decision declaring CDF unconstitutional

The National Assembly has vowed to challenge the High Court judgement that declared the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) unconstitutional.

The Assembly, in a statement released on Friday evening after the court ruling, said its legal team had asked for a copy of the judgement and court proceedings and would contest the decision at the Appellate Court.

“In the appeal, the National Assembly intends to challenge all the findings of the High Court with regard to the constitutionality of the NG-CDF Act 2015,” read the statement.

The three judge-bench made up of Justices Kanyi Kimondo, Roselyne Aburili, and Mugure Thande on Friday made the ruling and at the same time granted MPs about two years to finish pending projects across their constituencies before the NG-CDF ceases to exist at midnight on June 30, 2026.

The National Assembly however says that it will also be seeking, a “stay of the declaration of the unconstitutionality of the NGCDF Act, pending the hearing and determination of the intended Appeal.”

The judgement on Friday also ruled that the Act violates the principles of devolution even though it does not violate the Act’s basic structure.

The judges found that the CDF kitty led to duplication of activities and encroached into functions that the Constitution exclusively grants to county governments, and bore all the hallmarks of creating confusion in both levels of government.

It also established that the kitty violates the doctrine of separation of powers and runs afoul of the principle of separation of powers, adding that MPs have no powers to undertake development projects and that their role exclusively remains representation, legislation, and oversight.

The petition to illegalise the NG-CDF was filed in 2016 by Katiba Institute and other petitioners who challenged the Fund on grounds that it violates the principles of Public Finance and breached the doctrine of separation of powers among others.