Kenya’s Parliament finds itself on trial — both politically and in the court of public opinion — after President William Ruto sharpened his attacks on legislators over corruption claims, even as ODM leader Raila Odinga renewed calls to restructure the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) and take it directly to counties.

The renewed scrutiny comes at a time when relations between the Executive and Legislature are tense.

On Thursday, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula noted that public debate in recent weeks had cast doubt on Parliament’s integrity, with allegations of legislators soliciting and receiving inducements to influence legislation.

“I treat these allegations as rumours but as an institution we cannot afford to ignore the growing perception that corruption was infiltrating the law-making process,” he told MPs during the official opening of the 3rd leadership retreat of the 13th Parliament in Mombasa.

He went on: “More than at any other time before, doubt has been placed on our integrity as a House. Without integrity, leaders lose credibility among the people they lead. Without integrity, even the best executed roles are without impact. Without integrity, leadership fails.”

In recent public engagements, President Ruto has accused lawmakers of shielding corrupt cartels and turning oversight roles into avenues of self-enrichment.

The President claimed that some MPs were compromised with millions of shillings to frustrate critical laws.

“Do you, for example, know that a few members of your committee collected Sh10 million so that you don’t pass that law on anti-money laundering? Did you get the money?” he asked.

The President’s attacks strike at the heart of a long-running debate about the integrity of Parliament, an institution often accused of trading its independence for financial favours from the Executive.

His words carry weight at a time when Kenya is struggling with a ballooning debt crisis, rising taxes, and public frustration over wastage in government.

For MPs, the criticism could not have come at a worse time.

Parliament is under pressure to justify the billions it allocates itself annually while service delivery at the grassroots remains wanting.

The Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has repeatedly flagged misuse of funds, including questionable allowances, inflated committee budgets, and unexplained expenditures.

But amid criticisms, Deputy Speaker, Gladys Boss Shollei, has lauded the performance of National Assembly Committees, describing them as the “engine room of Parliament”.

She argues that committees had demonstrated remarkable diligence, holding 2,115 sittings, 820 meetings by Audit, Appropriations and General-Purpose Committees and 1,295 by Departmental Committees.

“In oversight alone, committees reviewed 648 reports of the Auditor-General, cutting down legacy backlogs and strengthening follow-up on audit queries,” she said during the MPs retreat on Thursday.

Parliament however, continues to be on the edge.

Mr Odinga has recently reignited another thorny issue; the fate of the CDF.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the NG-CDF was unconstitutional because it blurred the separation of powers by allowing MPs to control funds directly.

Mr Odinga now argues that the money should not be scrapped altogether but should, instead be redirected to county governments to strengthen devolution.

Referring to the ongoing public participation by legislators to have the CDF entrenched in the Constitution, the ODM leader dismissed the exercise as an effort in futility, saying it must be subjected to a national referendum.

“CDF (in reference to NG-CDF) is about 2.5 per cent of the total budget. 2.5 per cent is substantial because it would increase the allocation to counties from 15 percent to 17.5 per cent. CDF should be the responsibility of county governments. MPs are supposed to do three things: representation, legislation, and oversight,” he noted.

But on Thursday, the ODM leader came under attack from a section of MPs from Lower Eastern allied to president Ruto over his stance.

Led by Mwala MP and National UDA Organising Secretary Vincent Kawaya, the lawmakers accused Mr Odinga of going against the spirit of a broad-based government.

He described Mr Odinga’s position as ironic, adding that as one of the architects of the National Dialogue Committee (Nadco), he should not oppose its core principles.

Part of Nadco’s recommendations, which Mr Odinga steered, included the entrenchment of NG-CDF, the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF), and the Senate oversight fund in the Constitution.

During the retreat in Mombasa, National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah raised concerns over what he termed as “widespread misinformation and disinformation” on the House noting that it undermined the progress made by Parliament.

He cautioned that the House’s milestones risk being overshadowed by distorted narratives.

The Kikuyu MP revealed that during the session, the House held 79 sittings, processed 65 Bills at different stages, introduced 157 motions, presented 116 Questions to Cabinet Secretaries, requested 296 statements, considered 53 statutory instruments, tabled 2,302 papers and deliberated on 148 committee reports.

“Despite these milestones, our work is often undermined by misinformation and disinformation. If the public is not correctly informed and involved in the business of the House, all our efforts risk being in vain,” he said.

Mr Odinga has also trained his guns on the Senate, and has accused them of undermining devolution through frequent summons of governors.

According to him, the Senate’s accountability role has morphed into harassment. “The Senate should not turn itself into a police station for governors.

“Oversight must not cripple county operations,” he said, insisting that county assemblies and the Auditor-General remain the legitimate watchdogs at the local level.

His remarks are seen as an attempt to rally governors to his side, especially as tensions over revenue allocation and national oversight persist.

Some MPs have, however, accused the Council of Governors (CoG) of the recent attacks on Parliament.

“Any right-thinking individual knows very well that the current public debate on corruption in Parliament was an aftermath of the devolution conference. It is, therefore, public knowledge that this is just one of the many war fronts governors have been waging against Parliament through lobbying within the corridors of power,” an MP from Northern Kenya said.

The council, through its chairman, Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi, he noted, has repeatedly been on record pushing for resources under MPs to be transferred to counties under the pretext of devolved functions — “a misplaced, insatiable appetite for any money available.”

“The public criticism of Parliament is therefore not organic; it is orchestrated through the lobbying of the Council of Governors, led by its chair, Ahmed Abdullahi.”

Last month, governors secured sweet victory against MPs after court ordered allocation of Sh10.5 billion road levy to counties.

The High Court ordered the allocation of the Sh10.5 billion to counties for road maintenance, saying the exclusion of the devolved units from the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) was unconstitutional.

The decision, settled a protracted legal battle between the National Assembly and the governors, leaving the MPs battered.

In the landmark ruling by High Court Judge Lawrence Mugambi, governors got a greenlight to have access to the lucrative Sh10.5 billion allocation for road maintenance, with the court telling the National Assembly to disburse the monies by June 30, 2025.

The court ruling favoured Mr Odinga’s stance on the devolution of the fund.

The clash of narratives — Dr Ruto painting MPs as corrupt and Mr Odinga pushing to strip them of financial levers while shielding governors—has put Parliament in an awkward spotlight.

But this is not the first time Parliament is finding itself in a political quagmire.

On June 25, 2024, Parliament turned into a flashpoint of anger after Gen Z protesters stormed the chambers in a dramatic show of defiance.

The youthful demonstrators, mobilised largely through social media, were protesting against the controversial passage of the Finance Bill that they say deepened the cost-of-living crisis and mortgaged their future.

Mr Odinga then, termed the raid as a vote of no-confidence on Kenya’s parliament.

Senate Deputy Minority Leader Enoch Wambua has however, placed parliamentary corruption blame squarely on the President.

“The President pointed fingers at committees of Parliament. We should not forget that all chairs of committees of Parliament belong to the President’s party or coalition. Members of the National Executive are his direct appointees—he can fire them at will.”

The Kitui Senator added: “More than 85 per cent of governors are allied to the President. The President must deal with the culprits under his command whom he says are compromising Parliament.”

Lawyer Willis Otieno argued: “Ruto is the last person to castigate Parliament over corruption because the main purveyor of corruption in Parliament is the Executive. If he had intelligence reports, he should have acted by sharing them with law enforcement. Failing to do so makes him complicit.”

Political analyst Dismas Mokua says: “A good number of legislators have gone to the top of Mt Kenya and proclaimed that both the National Assembly and Senate are no more than Presidency appendages. A few have indicated that they have passed legislation under duress or to make the Presidency happy. The abandoned Finance Bill is a good example.”

“This suggests that the two Houses of Parliament have abandoned their triple responsibility of legislation, oversight and representation,” Mr Mokua says.

The two Houses of Parliament, he argues, must now stand up and demonstrate that they are loyal to national and public interests and have capacity to oppose Executive sponsored legislation if such legislation is not aligned to citizen’s interests and aspirations.

President Ruto on Tuesday unveiled a new Multi-Agency Team on War Against Corruption (MAT) in a move he said would give fresh impetus to his administration’s anti-graft fight.

Through Executive Order No. 1 of 2025, Dr Ruto formally established MAT under the State Department for Justice, Human Rights and Constitutional Affairs, bringing together key watchdog and investigative bodies. The High Court has, however, stopped the team from starting work as the case against it continues.