There is a motion in Parliament that will come up when we resume sittings next month.
The motion will be able to deal with the High Court's decision on the disbandment of the National Government Constituency Development Fund.
But what is important is that the framework for sharing NGCDF funds among constituencies is based on the number of wards. It is not based on population.
So, a constituency like mine would be at about Sh177 million. Any constituency that has six wards would get about Sh177 million.
Based on the revenue calculation, that allocation would increase every year. It is just like the revenue sharing formula by the Commission on Revenue Allocation on the sharing of revenue among counties.
So, in a nutshell, the NG-CDF formula does not lean towards the population. That is the current position. The formula is fair.
For instance, a constituency like Ugunja with three wards initially was getting the same allocation as Gem. So, people would think that the MP for Ugunja was performing better than Gem’s, which has six wards.
In terms of square kilometres, Ugunja constituency is like one ward in the Gem. Ugunja is 200 square kilometres, Ugenya is 400, Alego is 600, Bondo is 580 and Gem is about 458 square kilometres.
From that, you can see that the formula based on the wards works better. But, maybe, when we constitute the IEBC and they review the electoral boundaries, that delineation of boundaries would change or increase the number of wards in some constituencies based on the number of registered voters.
That could change the matrix. Otherwise, the formula that focuses on the number of wards is better than the current situation where all the constituencies get the same amount irrespective of the number of wards.
So, in short, the formula is good, and it does not necessarily depend on the population but on the number of wards in a constituency.
Gem MP spoke to the Star
