Salasya slams Kenyans supporting Raila’s push to devolve NG-CDF
By Nancy Marende, August 19, 2025Mumias East Member of Parliament (MP) Peter Salasya has criticised Kenyans supporting opposition leader Raila Odinga’s calls to devolve the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF).
In a statement on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, Salasya dismissed those backing the proposal as ‘fools’, accusing them of playing into the same “false promises” that led to the collapse of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
The legislator warned that abolishing CDF would cripple development at the grassroots, citing the absence of school buses, stalled infrastructure in primary and secondary schools, and halted projects like KMTCs, TTIs, police posts, chief’s offices, and bursaries for vulnerable learners.
“Those few Kenyans supporting Raila and Ruto to kill CDF are fools. The same way they killed NHIF and gave you false promises of SHA, which will still come starting June 2026, where no school buses shall be bought for schools, no infrastructure in primary schools and secondary schools, no KMTC, police posts, chief offices, or bursaries to the vulnerable,” he stated.
Furthermore, he stated that he is praying for the fund to be scrapped so that Kenyans who support its removal can experience the suffering he believes will follow.
“I’m praying they work so hard to remove this CDF; that will be my best moment – to see those fools supporting its removal, seeing their children suffer the way they are struggling with SHA as private hospitals close for lack of funding from SHA.”
Raila on NG-CDF
This comes a few days after Raila renewed calls to overhaul the NG-CDF and the NGAAF, proposing that all funds currently managed under the two programmes be transferred to the counties.
Speaking during the 2025 Devolution conference, Raila argued that the move would enhance efficiency, strengthen devolution, and improve service delivery.
He noted that NG-CDF was introduced at a time when Kenyans were seeking equitable resource distribution under an “imperial presidency” that starved many regions of development funds.
“Most of the work was left to harambees; when you needed to build a school, harambee; a dispensary, harambee,” Raila said.
“But the system has since changed. We removed the patronage model, adopted devolution, created a constitutional commission to allocate resources, and empowered Parliament on budgetary matters. In this new order, CDF is obsolete.”
He criticised the fund for distorting the role of MPs, saying their constitutional duty is to represent the people, legislate, and oversee the national government, not to distribute bursaries or construct classrooms.
“That is the work of counties,” he said.