AIDS chief dismissed for fraud

The recently suspended chief of Kenya's National AIDS Control Council (NACC), Margaret Gachara, has been officially dismissed. Local newspaper, The Nation, reported receiving an advertisement from the Office of the President, calling for applications to fill the post of NACC director. Gachara was suspended in August when it was discovered she was earning a monthly salary of about US $27,000 by means of forged documents. However, AIDS NGOs were hopeful that recent allegations of NACC's corruption and misappropriation would not affect funding for the country's HIV/AIDS programmes. Ester Gatua, programme manager of Kenya's AIDS NGO Consortium, said: "This should be a sign to the donors that the government is serious and has taken steps to control corruption. It would be unfortunate if this affected the work we are doing."