The newly created National Infrastructure Fund will be audited and monitored by the Auditor-General, not the Controller of Budget, Finance and National Planning Committee Chair Kimani Kuria has clarified. The move, he said, is meant to ensure accountability while protecting resources for development projects.
Speaking in an interview on NTV on Thursday, March 12, 2026, Kuria dismissed concerns that the Fund would operate without oversight, stressing that the law establishing it mandates auditing by the Auditor-General.
“In addition, we’ve also provided that all these funds that are going to be put in the National Infrastructure Fund will have the oversight of the Auditor General,” Kuria said. “We actually expressly put that this fund must be oversighted by the Auditor General. It must be audited by the Auditor General.”
Kuria explained that the Controller of Budget’s approval is not required for spending from the Fund because it is not part of the Consolidated Fund. Funds created through Acts of Parliament operate differently from regular government accounts, he said.
“The difference is because these funds are not going to the Consolidated Fund, because they’re going out to a fund constructed through an Act of Parliament,” Kuria said.
“Special funds do not have the oversight of the Controller of Budget, but they have an express audit by the Office of the Auditor General. Yes, so the Auditor General audits the fund.”
He further highlighted other safeguards to ensure transparency, including review by parliamentary audit committees and guidance through an investment policy.
Projects planned under the Fund, such as the Rironi–Mau Summit Road, must be included in an investment plan, submitted to Parliament for approval, and subjected to public participation.
"Then most importantly, what you call in the investment policy, the investment policy is that we agree that we need to build the Rironi–Mau Summit Road. So that needs to be in the investment plan. And that investment plan has to come to Parliament for approval," Kuria said.
Kuria said the Fund was deliberately placed outside the Consolidated Fund to prevent diversion of resources to salaries, loans, taxes, or other routine government expenses.
By establishing a separate account, he added, the money is protected and can only finance commercially viable infrastructure initiatives, including highways, airports, seaports, and irrigation projects.
He also clarified that placing the Fund under the Controller of Budget would have required amending the Constitution, as the Controller’s mandate only covers withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund.
The Fund, which received presidential assent earlier this month, aims to mobilise large-scale financing for infrastructure development without increasing debt or raising taxes.