Judges of the supreme court led by Chief Justice David Maraga on Sept 1, 2017. [Photo/The Star]
Two non-governmental organisations want the Supreme Court to declare the Constituency Development Fund unconstitutional.The Institute for Social Accountability and the Centre for Democracy and Good Governance, which had earlier challenged the legality of the fund, have filed an appeal against the judgement of the Court of Appeal that preserved some sections of the CDF Act, 2013.The petition filed by Katiba Institute’s Waikwa Wanyoike, will be served to the National Assembly, the Senate, the Attorney General and the CDF Board, the Star reports.The CDF Act was declared unconstitutional in 2015, but last year, the National Assembly got a reprieve after the Court of Appeal ruled that only some sections of Act are unconstitutional.Justices Erastus Githinji, Hannah Okwengu and GBM Kariuki ruled that Sections 24( 3 )(c), 24 ( 3 )(f) and Section 37 ( 1 ) (a) of the CDF Act violates the principle of separation of powers but held that the remainder of the Act and the objective remain operational.The Act had been amended to comply with the Constitution after the organisations successfully challenged its legality. Justices Isaac Lenaola, Mumbi Ngugi and David Majanja declared the entire Act unconstitutional and directed Parliament to rectify the unlawful sections within 12 months.The judges said it was evident MPs still controlled the CDF board committee and influenced the selection, prioritisation of projects, allocation of funds and monitoring the implementation.“The appointment of MPs to perform purely executive duties of enforcing CDF is a violation of the Constitution and principles of separation of powers and of national values and governance,” they said as reported by the Star.