US Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter
FOREIGN AID: US Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter
Image: FILE

The United States says Kenya has to stop relying on foreign aid.

Kenya received Sh57 billion from the US government in 2017-18, which was reduced to Sh50 billion last year to the expected Sh37 billion this year for disease control.

Ambassador Kyle McCarter on Monday said every successful project should get smaller because of the fewer disease outbreaks reported in the country. 

 
 

“That should be the direction we are going because we have greater success, we have fewer outbreaks, fewer people suffering and more people that are healthy and living a vibrant healthy life. That is what we want,” McCarter said.

He said this in a tour of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Kibera Research Centre and Tabitha Clinic in Kibera, Nairobi.

The ambassador said the country should not only judge things by dollars and cents but largely look at the potential Kenyans have. 

“The greatest resource that comes from Kenya is its people. We give too much attention to the partners. The potential should come from what the Kenyan people have,” he said. 

Kenya has received about Sh700 billion from Pepfar since it was founded 15 years ago and remains the programme’s largest beneficiary.

The US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) is the US government’s response to the global HIV/Aids epidemic. It has been supporting the provision and expansion of integrated TB and HIV/Aids care treatment services within Kibera since 2003. 

Hundreds of Kenyans working for NGOs funded by the US government to do HIV-related work have been laid off following severe budget cuts.

The organisations were required to close numerous activities by October 1 when the budget cuts begin.

Pepfar, which funds most HIV activities in Kenya, has been cutting funding to Kenya since 2017.

Currently, in Kibera between 25,000 and 29,000 people are part of a health and demographic surveillance system that collects information every four months.

The Kibera Reach 90 Project seeks to improve prevention, care and treatment of HIV/Aids, sexually transmitted infections and related opportunistic infections including tuberculosis and initiating programmes to provide Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART).

As of August, an average of 416 people in Kibera test for HIV/Aids monthly