Can a discretionary fund for elected reps be better than CDF?

By MUNGAI KIHANYA

The Sunday Nation

Nairobi,

27 July 2025

In view of the numerous constitutional challenges that have befallen the Constituency Development Fund since 2010, I think we need to reform it in a completely different way. What if we established a Discretionary Fund for all the elected officials? This would be money assigned to them to be utilized in any public project or service of their choice but not for personal use. The money may be used on, say, building a kitchen in a school or buying food for the children.

The money would be shared in two stages. First among the categories of representatives - the president, governors, senators, members of national assembly (MNAs) and members of county assemblies (MCAs). Then, among the members in each category.

In the first step, I suggest that for every shilling that an average MCA gets, the average MNA gets two, then the senator and governor get four each and the president gets eight. In other words, we double the amount in every stage of the hierarchy.

Suppose we give one shilling to each of the 1,450 elected MCAs; the Sh2 to each elected MNA; Sh4 to each elected senator and governor and Sh8 to the president; the total amount comes to Sh2,414.

We can then use this total figure to work out how much the MCAs will share. It is Sh1,450 divided by Sh2,414; that is 60.1 per cent of the total amount available. Similarly, for the MNAs, Senators, governors and the president, the ratios are 24pc, 15.6pc. 15.6pc and 0.3pc of the total available, respectively.

Thus, in the 2024/25 financial year, for example, where there was Sh62.3 billion available for the CDF, the distribution under this proposed discretionary fund would be Sh37B to be shared among the MCAs, Sh15B for the MNAs, Sh9.7B for the senators and governors and Sh206 million goes to the president.

Next, we distribute these allocations amongst individual representatives. I think this should be done on the basis of the number of registered voters in each electoral unit as well as its surface area on a 50:50 basis. So, to find out how much an MCA will get, we divide the Sh37B by two; then distribute the first Sh18.5B on the basis of one voter one shilling and the second Sh18.75B on one square kilometre one shilling.

This is just my suggestion; do you think it would work better than the current CDF?