Politics
Act to boost ties, Kalonzo tells US
Posted Monday, February 8 2010 at 20:00
In Summary
- VP in plea for Millennium Challenge Account funds
Americans have been challenged to match their desire for deeper partnership with Kenya with more action, development assistance and trade.
One way they could help Kenya deal with her development challenges was by fast-tracking her application to access the Millennium Challenge Account funds, just like the Bush Administration did for Tanzania, which received more than $700 million from the fund, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka said on Monday as he concluded a visit to the US.
On Saturday, the VP announced that Kenya was set to benefit from millions of dollars from Washington through the MCA and increased investment funding through the United States Agency for International Development.
This followed a meeting between him and senior officials of the US State Department led by Mr Donald Yamamoto, the principal deputy assistant secretary.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a bilateral development fund established by the US Government in 2002 and put into operation in January, 2004.
Countries that take part in the MCC are selected competitively through a set of 17 indicators designed to measure their effectiveness in ruling justly, investing in people, and fostering enterprise and entrepreneurship.
The focus of the MCC is to promote economic growth in recipient countries. Emphasis is put on good economic policies.
On Monday, the VP also pressed for the lifting of travel advisories the US has issued to its citizens travelling to Kenya. He said some tourists interpret the advisories to mean Kenya was an unsafe place to visit, yet the reality on the ground is that no tourist has been targeted in Kenya.
Armageddon
Elsewhere, President Barack Obama described the storm that buried Washington and a neighbouring state in snow as “Snow Armageddon”.
Schools, government offices, and businesses closed for two days. Public transport and even private motoring ground to a halt. All flights out of Washington were cancelled as cars on driveways, car parks or wherever were completely buried in the snow.
Mr Musyoka had to forget flying out of the US capital to the Caribbean.
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Musyoka, Musyoka people here work even two shifts at gas stations enduring attacks at night by thugs. Work as night watchmen enduring the snow and attacks by gangs. This is the US tax payers money people are messing up with in Kenya and other places. The pain is there in earning this money yet some people are enriching themselves with no regard to who the money was designated for.
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Kenyans need to keep track of the amount of money these people are borrowing, surposedly on our behalf, then it disappears into private bank accounts.This administration although headed by an economist does not seem to care about posterity. They want to start as many projects as possible, but bottom line is theft.
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"Money, money and more money" yet Kalonzo cannot stand up and ask those mentioned in curruption cases to step aside. All they want is more money to steal. It's not a bad idea to ask for assistance, but it raises concerns when we caanot account for funds given to us. Let me remind Kalonzo that Tanzania has a very clear cut way of dealing with curruption. Government officials mentioned in curruption simply resign and allow investigation. Otherwise why should Kenya ask for more money yet 100m lost in free education fund "has no consequences"
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