The nominee for the controller of budget was yesterday put to task by the members of the Parliamentary Budget Committee over the management of the Constituency development Fund (CDF). Agnes Nangira Odhiambo is the current chief executive officer of the CDF. The MPs said there were a lot of inconsistencies about the running of the CDF. “We want you to clarify about information we read in the press that an MP withdrew over Sh100 million,” said Mosop MP David Koech.

The MP also asked Odhiambo to clarify how the money is disbursed and how many constituencies have not received their allocation this financial year. In her answer, Odhiambo said most information about misuse of the CDF funds were erroneous and based on rumour. “The information about an MP withdrawing over 100 million is factually wrong. That cannot happen,” she said. “There is only one constituency in Turkana which received Sh106 million," Odhiambo told MPs.

Odhiambo’s answer to the MPs appear to contradict the allegations leveled against the Kitutu Chache MP Richard Onyonka who two weeks ago was taken to task by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission over allegations of using 139 million from the Kitutu Chache CDF kitty to purchase sugar from Chemelil sugar. She told MPs that her office could not release any money to a constituency which had more than Sh10 million in their account that it cannot explain.

The MPs were told that 70 constituencies had not received their full allocation since they had not complied with the requirements. The CDF boss told MPs that those purporting to audit CDF relied on hearsay and did not have the capacity to audit the use of the fund. “NGOs such as the National Tax Association (NTA) rely on hearsay to publish their reports. Do they have capacity and enough personnel to conduct the audit?”

The UoN alumni was the first female student to score a first class honours in Bachelor of Commerce degree at the university in 1980. She had scored Division One in Form Four examinations she sat for at Misikhu Girls, Bungoma district. She later became the first female to be appointed executive director at Unga group where she was the sole female board member among 37 others.