Members of the County Assembly of Nandi have unanimously passed the Ward Development Fund motion in a special sitting. Addressing the press in his office, Nandi County speaker Joshua Kiptoo said the Bill has passed the second reading, thus the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) and the Annual Development Plan (ADP) which are in line with the budget estimates are in consideration too.
Kiptoo said the legislation provides that 30% of the total development fund be spread out to all the wards adding that out of the 30%, 20% will be based on equalization, considering areas that are marginalized and wards like Tindiret and Kilibwoni, which are larger, will benefit from this.
The speaker revealed that the CIDP had delayed because it hadn’t been outlined according to the national government requirements and the Governor has fourteen days to assent to it.
The Ward Development Fund (WDF) currently known as the Community Development Fund isn’t anchored in the law and the situation has put many County administrations at loggerheads with the controller of budgets who didn’t approve County budgets containing the bill. The WDF assists Counties to impelment speciific priority projects at the Wards. County governments normally set aside a certain percentage of their budget for the WDF, and Nandi has set aside 30%.