National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has assured Members of Parliament that all monies owed to the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) Board will be released before the fund winds up in June next year.
Mr Mbadi said that next month, the Treasury will release Sh5.3 billion to the Board, which will help lawmakers issue bursaries as the government races against time to clear all outstanding pending bills before the end of the fund, as ruled by the court.
“In January, we will disburse Sh5.3 billion more to the CDF Board, taking the total amount disbursed so far to Sh32.2 billion,” Mr Mbadi told Nation .
The National Treasury has to date disbursed a total of Sh27 billion of the Sh58.8 billion it owes the NG-CDF Board.
“Every month, we will be disbursing Sh5.3 billion from January to June. We are doing very well on this so far,” Mr Mbadi said.
Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu said they need at least Sh600 million this month alone to be able to issue bursaries effectively to students returning to school.
“The money has been coming in very well. In December, just before recess, we received Sh400 million, but we will need more before the end of the year to plan for the bursaries,” Dr Mulu said.
Dr Mulu pointed out that the biggest challenge is whether the National Treasury will be able to clear the debts before the fund winds up.
In the 2025/2026 financial year, the NG-CDF was allocated a total of Sh58, 797,728,147.
Mr Mbadi had, on October 16, 2025, written to the National Assembly through the Clerk, providing a clear schedule for the disbursement of NG-CDF funds to the Board.
In the letter, Mr Mbadi assured lawmakers that by June 2026, the government will have cleared all arrears from previous financial years.
Section 39(2) of the NG-CDF Act, 2015, states: “The disbursement of funds to the constituency fund account shall be effected at the beginning of the first quarter of each financial year with an initial amount equivalent to twenty-five percent of the annual allocation for the constituency. Thereafter, the constituency fund account shall be replenished in three equal instalments at the beginning of the second, third and fourth quarters of the financial year.”
The High Court in September 2024 declared NG-CDF unconstitutional for violating the principle of separation of powers and for failure to consult the Senate when the law was enacted.
“The National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF), as amended in 2022 and 2023, is hereby declared unconstitutional, and all its projects, programmes and activities shall cease to operate at midnight on June 30, 2026,” the bench ruled.
The National Assembly has since passed the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks, among other things, to entrench the NG-CDF in the Constitution, with MPs maintaining that they will not let go of the fund, saying much is at risk if it is abolished.
Lawmakers have been at loggerheads with the Judiciary, as various court rulings have declared the NG-CDF illegal since it is not anchored in the Constitution.
The CDF Act was enacted in 2003 and later amended in 2007, providing that the government set aside at least 2.5 per cent of the last audited revenue, as approved by the National Assembly, to be channelled to the fund for use at the constituency level.
