A group of petitioners have moved to court seeking the suspension of the Ksh.50 billion Hustler Fund launched by President William Ruto last week.

In the petition, filed against the Attorney General, President William Ruto and six other individuals, lawyers Benard Odero Okello and Kevin Ndoho Macharia argue that the Hustler Fund was launched before the establishment of an advisory board tasked to among other things provide oversight in the administration of the kitty.

According to the petitioners,  the absence of the board is a violation of the constitution and related legislation concerning public finance, an argument supported in another petition on the same filed by lobby group ‘Operation Linda Ugatuzi’They also want the court to issue orders halting further disbursement of the funds until there is clarity on the source of the said kitty.

“According to the Public Finance Act it’s a requirement that they should appoint a board that should form policies and govern the fund as far as we are concerned, there is no gazzetment of that board, there is just a mention of who needs to be on the board but it has not been constituted another thing there is no Secretariat, who will run this funds,” Fred Ogolla, a governance expert and one of the petitioners said on the matter.

“Wanjiku, the person representing you has not appropriated these funds so the question is where is this fund from and where is it sitting?”

The petitioners now want to compel the Controller of Budget to reveal the source of the funds.

They are demanding for an account of all moneys that have been disbursed ever since the kitty was launched, a declaration that the Finance CS is in breach of his constitutional duties, and a declaration stating that further roll out of the funds is unconstitutional.

The petitioners’ demands come as MPs allied to the Kenya Kwanza Alliance continue castigating Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga for allegedly misleading the country on the issue of the Hustler Fund.

“I want to tell the former prime minister to be on the right side of history. The hustler fund is a very important fund I think by yesterday we had about 11 million loan applications on it. You cannot say that 11 million people are wrong and you are the only one who is right,” Tetu MP Geoffrey Wandeti said.

The MPs have urged Kenyans to capitalise on the Hustler Fund to improve their financial status and livelihoods.

By Fred Odanga Azelwa.