Aid and Corruption

Last month the U.S. and Great Britain both cut off education aid to Kenya. The U.S. had promised $7 milllion and the U.K. about $15 million. Why? Because an audit showed that $1 million per month was disappearing from the Kenyan education ministry. Who suffers from this action? The students and the teachers who are trying to learn and teach.

Unfortunately this sort of dilemma is not unusual for countries that contribute aid to the developing world. On the one hand there is a desperate need and on the other hand one can't just keep supplying money to be stolen by corrupt officials. In the Kenyan case the corruption reaches into the highest levels of the government. You can make a good argument that no money should be sent to Kenya at all, no matter how good the cause.

The whole affair is just too sad. Kenya amongst its poorer neighbors has every opportunity to be a thriving economy. Sure they've had troubles with drought but to read the CIA factbook account of the economy will just make you cry. The U.S. ambassador has been unusually outspoken on these issues, suggesting that the corrupt officials not just be sacked, the usual treatment if any, but "put behind bars". Not likely to happen.

In these cases, it's rarely a single individual who is pocketing the money. More usually there is a network of criminal officials all taking their part. The "successful" corrupt minister will make sure all his underlings get some so that he can take the bulk of the cash and everyone is happy and quiet. In an emergency a couple junior officials can be thrown to the wolves if investigators get too close. The students are left to slog along with inadequate schools as best they can. And the ministers kids are probably in boarding schools in England.