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An impertinent question I know, however, I just had to ask. It sort of follows on from the last post.
Since the financial outlook globally is now so dismal, surely Western governments will have to cut, even suspend their aid budgets to Africa for now? The Wealthy West has suddenly become the Indebted West and for a while presumably East Africa and other developing nations will be left to fend for themselves financially? - So what happens if aid money is no longer flowing in to prop up corrupt governments and government officials? Will this global financial crisis represent the beginning of a sea change in Africa?
My favourite pet subject is the perceived value of foreign aid to Africa - I'm talking, in the main, about the government-to-government kind. I heard a rumour that UK aid money to Kenya is going to be pretty near to zero next year. Not sure if it's true - but even though David Cameron promised to ring-fence aid at the beginning of the crisis, he could never have anticipated how difficult today's financial situation has become, so it is sounding more and more like a real possibility.
Without the slush fund of foreign aid that has been pouring into the country over the past 50 years since independence, Kenyan politicians might now just have to shape up and personally deliver on some of the promises they make to the Kenyan people. Just look at how far Malaysia has got in those same years?
Am I being naive here? Whatever happens, things are about to change.