An assessment of The Use and Management of Development Funds

The Kenya government designed a new strategy for enhancing community development in 2003 through an Act of Parliament (CDF Act 2003). This Act saw the establishment of Constituencies Development Fund. These are funds meant for initiating development projects at the constituency level. The CDF Act gives provision for earmarking at least 2.5% of ordinary government revenue for the CDF kitty.75% of it is distributed equally to all the 210 constituencies in the country and the remaining 25% is further distributed basing upon the poverty index of constituencies. The Act establishes four committees to facilitate the efficient implementation and management of the fund .However one of them stands out as it is the one that handles the money directly and that is the Constituency Development Committee The agenda behind its establishment was to promote equitable distribution of resources through out the country by channelling resources direct to all the constituencies regardless of their political affiliation. However research on the use of these funds reveals that the establishment of the fund was merely to enable all national politicians to have direct access to state resources for their own benefit. In trying to meet the objectives of the study which were to find out whether the fund is contributing towards efficiency in resource use or has been hijacked by politicians for purposes of furthering their interests, the theory of instrumentality of political disorder was employed. The main aspects of the theory employed were; politicians favour law levels of political institutionalisation as it accommodates corruption and patronage. Based on findings, the study confirms that low levels of institutionalisation are highly favoured by the Kenyan political elite (MPs) as it facilitates the process of wealth accumulation through corruption and also gives room for creating new platforms for patronage.