Commissioner decries suspension of donor funding

A senior official from Nyanza province, western Kenya, has said that the suspension of donor funding to the area was damaging development projects and threatening the health care of local people, Kenyan Radio reported on Wednesday. During a tour of Bondo District Hospital, Provincial Commissioner John Nandasaba reported that development work on the hospital, started in 1990, had stalled following the suspension of aid from multilateral donors. Many communities in the district currently had little or no access to professional medical care, he added. Nandasaba said that ordinary Kenyans were facing continued hardship after calls from some politicians and donors to suspend aid, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) reported.

The Kenyan parliament on 14 August rejected a bill that would have paved the way for the reinstatement of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA). The IMF discontinued aid to Kenya last year because of its failure to fulfil promises on privatisation of state utilities and tackling corruption, with the reestablishment of the KACA a key condition for the release of US $198 million in funding. Opposition parties and civil society groups argued that the constitutional amendment proposed by the government to allow KACA be reestablished would have guaranteed a weak and ineffectual institution.