MPs allocate themselves additional Ksh.5 billion in CDF

Each Member of Parliament will now get an additional Ksh.30 million in a last-minute adjustment to the proposed 2024-2025 budget.

The proposed increment comes amidst uproar over the Finance Bill 2024 that seeks to burden the taxpayer further.

The Ndindi Nyoro-led National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee has however defended more money for MPs, saying the additional funds will also cater for the recent destruction of schools by the heavy rains.

The committee said the expenditure which had been set at Ksh.3.9 trillion is likely to increase as reallocation will not cover the shortfalls.

"NG-CDF as you know is a share of the revenue that we collect as a country and therefore consequently every year it goes up because of that and in Kenya now every constituency would be getting an average of Ksh.180 million to Ksh.220 million every year,” said Nyoro.

This will see NG-CDF receive Ksh.5 billion more in their current budget. Coincidentally, the proposed increment followed another proposed addition to the equitable share of revenue to the counties from the proposed Ksh.391 billion by the National Assembly to Ksh.400 billion agreed by the mediation team.

The team was formed after the Senate proposed a disbursement of Ksh.415 billion to the counties in the 2024-2025 financial year.

It is an increase that has once again exposed MPs on their priority areas at a time when Kenyans are protesting over the Finance Bill 2024 -2025 seeking to raise revenue to finance the Ksh.3.9 trillion budget and the shortfall in revenue collection.

"We are likely to increase our expenditure from the current Ksh.3.914 trillion. We are likely to increase it because some things can't wait; JSS can't wait, the school feeding programme can't wait and even if we try to reallocate that money, reallocation will not be enough to cover the shortfalls,” Nyoro added.

State House, Office of the President, Office of the Deputy President and the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary are some of the public institutions whose allocation will be reviewed and funds redirected to finance the Ksh.10 billion tree planting programme, as well as address shortfalls in education and security Sectors. 

On flood mitigation, the committee says they have reinstated money that had been cut from the Department of Irrigation to help in water harvesting.

However, there was a division among the members over the allocation of the political parties’ funds.

With the delay of disbursement of funds being blamed on service delivery, the committee has urged the National Treasury to ensure that in the next financial year resources are released on time to enable national and county governments’ programmes to run effectively.