NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 1 – Senate Speaker Amason Kingi has rejected calls by the National Assembly to amend the Constitution to operationalize the Senate Oversight Fund.
Kingi who on Wednesday opened a two-day post-election seminar for the Senators in Mombasa cautioned them against “making it a public issue”.
“Changing the Constitution to operationalize the fund is the most dangerous path and the House will reject such attempts,” he said.
Kingi underscored that the House will “abandon” the clamor exuding confidence that the fund will become operational soon.
President William Ruto in September 2022 during his address to the joint sitting of Parliament proposed the establishment of the new Senate Fund.
He noted that the fund will help the Senators discharge their mandate effectively.
National Assembly in November 2022 formed an Ad-Hoc Committee to entrench NG-CDF into law.
The Supreme Court had in August 2022 declared the fund administered in all the 290 constituencies unconstitutional prompting the House to subsequently form the committee.
The joint committee has a membership of 13 Senators and 13 members from the National Assembly.
Kingi, however, noted that the Senate will not take that route with the House set to deliberate on the matter once it resumes its sittings on February 14, 2022.
“Once we resume we will be having a sitting with our members in the committee to look at ways in which we can be able to operationalize the fund,” he said.
MPs Gichimu Githinji (Gichugu) and Stephen Mule (Matungulu) are the authors of the legislative proposal that seeks to have the funds anchored in law.
