Netherlands cuts funding to environment projects

The Netherlands government has suspended funding to environmental development programmes in Kenya following the Kenyan parliament's rejection of contentious anti-corruption measures, the 'East African Standard' reported on Wednesday. The newspaper quoted the officer in charge of environmental affairs at the Dutch embassy in Nairobi, Jantinus Smacenbroek, as saying that the Netherlands government had initially planned to fund environmental projects in Kenya for a period of 10 years, but had been surprised by the rejection in August of the Kenya Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Bill.

Smacenbroek added that the Netherlands had already spent Ksh 111 million (US $1.4 million) on environmental projects in Kenya over the last two and a half years. He said the Netherlands would soon establish an environmental affairs office in Uganda to streamline its activities in the region.
Although the International Monetary Fund had tied the release of an estimated US $317 million of funding to the passing of the Bill and the re-establishment of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA), MPs refused to deliver the 65 percent majority needed for approval. President Daniel arap Moi announced on 15 August, the day after the MPs rejected the bill, that a new police anti-corruption squad would be set up, and would deal with the 139 cases previously being investigated by KACA.