Githongo - Kenya Could Lose More Aid The East African 14 February 2005 Page: 1
Institutional lenders like the International Monetary Fund, however, advocate caution in responses to corruption issues in Kenya and many other African countries where spending on the national security sector is secretive and liable to abuse.
KENYAS FAILURE to stem new corruption could ultimately cost it much more than the $2.5 million in suspended funding announced by US Ambassador William Bellamy in Nairobi last Tuesday, just a day after anti-corruption czar John Githongo resigned.
President George W. Bushs budget proposals, also announced last week, reveal long-term development assistance trends unfavourable to countries, such as Kenya, judged not to be meeting US standards for good governance.
"The way the Fund looks at issues is different from a political perspective. We look at programmes and examine the underlying issues and then make judgments of what is needed to correct problems," an IMF official said.
With regard to military procurement the official said the Fund was looking for solutions elsewhere in Africa or in the world that might help in addressing the Kenyan problem. "We have known that military procurement is a major weak link in many African countries. We want to identify practices in other countries that are significantly stronger," the official said.
The IMF, it is understood, plans no imminent cutoff or reduction in its assistance to Kenya as a result of Bellamys statement, which was preceded by a scathing attack inaction against corrupt public officials. That may change, however, once an IMF mission scheduled for Nairobi next month makes a factual assessment.
In his spending plan for the fiscal year beginning next October, President Bush puts greater emphasis on the Millennium Challenge Account, an aid programme tied to anti-corruption efforts, cutting funding for traditional development aid given to poor countries politically aligned with the US.
President Bush is seeking $3 billion next year for the Millennium Challenge programme – double the amount approved by the US Congress for the current fiscal year.
At the same time, the budget proposal calls for a $300 million cut in child-health assistance and a similar reduction in long-term development aid to poor countries.
In the past, child-health and development assistance funds have been among the largest sources of US aid to Kenya. It is apparent that money may be taken from traditional aid programmes that do not involve rigorous tests for eligibility, and be given to President Bushs signature aid initiatives and to US efforts to cool hot spots in the developing world. Critics say President Bush is "robbing Peter to pay Paul."
"The president had pledged to fund new development initiatives without taking the money out of important existing programmes, but he has failed to follow through on this promise," comments Steve Radelet, a fellow at the Washington-based Centre for Global Development.
The development-assistance shifts appear potentially beneficial to Tanzania and Uganda, however, after failure to make progress on containing corruption that caused them to be excluded from the Millennium Challenge programme last year despite having qualified as "threshold" recipients.
Kenyas East African Community partners stand a good chance of winning full admission to the Millennium programme later this year, gifting them several million dollars more in US development aid with the extent of additional support resting at the mercy of the US Congress.
President Bush may not get anything close to the $3 billion he is seeking for the Millennium Challenge Account. Congress has proven reluctant in the past to meet the White Houses funding requests for the two-year-old programme. It has yet to disburse a single dollar of assistance to any of the 16 countries chosen last year for the first round of Millennium aid.
The delays in implementing the highly touted programme have damaged its credibility in Congress. As a result, some analysts predict the Millennium Challenge Account will receive only about $2 billion for the coming year.
Although all three East African countries can meanwhile look forward to sizeable increases in anti-Aids funding from the US, Mr. Githongos resignation, and calls by some Cabinet ministers in President Mwai Kibakis feuding government for him to take action against corrupt officials, have badly damaged Kenyas chances.
Health Minister Charity Ngilu, and her colleagues Prof Anyang Nyongo of National Development and Raila Odinga of Roads added their voices to Vice President Moody Aworis admission that emerging corruption was holding back the government from fulfilling promises made to Kenyans just over two years ago when, with an overwhelming majority, it swept Kanu out of power.
With calls for President Kibaki to end his silence and crack the whip mounting, members of his own NARC government, Kanu, civic society and religious organisations found a common ground against the continued retention in government of corrupt ministers and top civil servants.
Reports of a reshuffle targeting the Office of the President and the Ministries of Lands and Tourism that surfaced last Thursday turned out not to be as the president issued a bland statement in which he sought to end accusations that his government was soft on corruption.
He ordered immediate investigations into suspect government contracts running into billions of shillings.
In statement issued from State House on Thursday night, President Kibaki said he had "ordered the Kenya Anti-corruption Commission to move with speed and act appropriately to ensure that there is no loss of government funds and necessary action is taken."
President Bushs emergency Aids relief programme – which targets Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and 13 other poor countries – would receive $3.2 billion next year in accordance with the spending plan being submitted to Congress. That sum represents a $300 million increase over current levels. Anti-Aids assistance to Kenya will soar from $107 million this year to $162 million next year. Tanzania will see its share of anti-Aids funds rise from $80 million to $105 million, while the total for Uganda is set to grow from $105 million this year to $186 million in fiscal 2006.
These proposed allocations were determined by the White House prior to Mr Bellamys recent condemnation of Kenyas slow pace in disbursing US anti-Aids funds. Because of the envoys attack, it is possible that the US Congress will decide to reduce the amount of Aids assistance for Kenya that President Bush is seeking.
The presidents budget plan calls for continued decreases in child-health assistance to all three East African countries. The amounts proposed for 2006 are roughly one-third or one-half the size of what was provided in 2004. This reduction appears to conform with the pattern of cutting funds in long-standing development programmes in order to finance increases in Mr Bushs own initiatives, including the global Aids relief project.
In the broad development-assistance category, however, Kenya and Tanzania are both in line for small funding increases – from $15.8 million to $16.3 million in Kenyas case, and from $8 million to $8.7 million in Tanzanias. Development aid to Uganda would meanwhile drop from $27.2 million in 2005 to $21.4 million next year.
The overall shifts in US foreign assistance sketched in President Bushs plan are further reflected in new "transition initiative" programmes for Sudan and Ethiopia. They stand to receive $70 million and $25 million, respectively, in accordance with a White House effort to strengthen weak states in areas of strategic importance to the US.
Funds set aside for international disaster relief are scheduled to grow as well. American contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations will also increase substantially in 2006 under President Bushs proposals, although US allocations for other UN programmes, such as Unicef and the UN Development Programme, will be cut.
According to some analysts, these movements of funds reflect the Bush administrations preference for unilateral initiatives abroad, except in regard to the burden of peacekeeping in Africa, where the US appears eager to share with others.
Overall, President Bushs budget contains nearly $23 billion for US foreign assistance in 2006 – about 16 per cent more than is being provided in the current year. The total US budget for 2006 will approach $2.6 trillion. The Pentagon will likely receive about $500 billion in the coming year – or about 15 times as much as the US will provide in peaceful assistance to other countries.