There is good news for Kenyans before US President Barrack Obama, son of a Kenyan man, sets foot in the country for the first time as leader of the world’s super power nation.

Ahead of the visit in July, it emerged his administration has planned $553 million (Sh 50 billion) in aid to Kenya this year. The Obama administration has asked the US congress for the $553 million funding in the 2015/2016 budget, according to new policy document that show the aid is partly in response to devolution and to foster public participation in government affairs. The US State Department in its data site, ForeignAssistance.gov says the administration has requested this amount in the 2015 budget proposal, making Kenya the 8th highest recipient of US funding in the world. Despite perceived misunderstanding between Nairobi and Washington, Kenya has consistently remained among the ten major recipients of US foreign aid for the last decade. The latest budgetary allocation to Kenya comes on the back of reports that Obama will tour Kenya, his father's homeland in July, the first visit to the country as US President. See also: Obama, Castro stand together at historic summit The first US African American President will be in Nairobi for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) between July 24 and 26. Obama will also hold bilateral talks with President Kenyatta, State House, has since announced. As part of preparations for the visit, Mr Kenyatta met a five-member delegation of the US Senate and US Congress on Friday. The delegation headed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (New York) met the President at State House, Nairobi, where they discussed the war against terror, regional security, trade and investment issues. While the USAID Kenya Country Development Co-operation Strategy 2014-2018 is long on democracy, equity, and rule of law, a closer look at where the money will be directed to paints a different picture altogether. Of the US $553 million, 67 per cent will go to HIV and Aids programmes as the trend has been in the last decade. In 2013 for example, of the US$497.5 million (Sh46 billion) US aid to Kenya, US$355.5 million (Sh33 billion) went to health and of this US$290 million (Sh27 billion) went to HIV programmes. According to the US government data portal called Dashboard only US$38 million went to democracy, while a similar amount was channelled to economic development. US$10 million (Sh930 million) went to education. Around the same time, the US changed its HIV funding policy largely starving advocacy and preventive programmes in favour of projects providing biomedicals. This include condoms, anti-retrovirals, and HIV testing kits, drug injecting needles, male circumcision tools and services with much of this money going to foreign pharmaceutical companies.

This led to groups such as Internews, which was responsible for training of journalists on HIV and health reporting, drastically cutting back their operations in Kenya. For the new funding, the strategy includes an increased recruitment, funding and strengthening of civil society, mobilising unemployed youth, women and other so called marginalised groups such as gays to engage both the national and county governments. The new strategy could be what Obama will be trying to sell to the Uhuru government in private meetings with the latter, which has shown little tolerance for civil society. In 2013, there was a proposal in Parliament to come up with a Public Benefits Organisations Act (2013), a move largely seen as a Government effort to wield more control over civil society. The law however did materialise. The USAid Kenya Country Development Co-operation Strategy 2014-2018 reports it will engage the one-million member Youth Bunge network to promote "youth-owned, youth-led, and youth-managed" initiatives that support devolution. "USAid Kenya will also seek to establish a youth action fund to provide grants to youth 'bunges' in support of key constitutional reforms and youth-identified social issues," says the strategy document which was prepared in May. See also: Obama, Castro stand together at historic summit Last year, the National Security Advisory Committee had a tiff with the US Embassy in Nairobi after allegations that USAid was using civil society groups and youth to undermine the Kenyan government. The US ambassador to Kenya, however, denied the allegations but said they were working with the groups in a transparent manner. The USAid five-year strategy designed to accommodate a devolved government says successful devolution requires an effective civil society. USAid says Kenya's Bill of Rights is the most progressive in the world, but this could also prove to be an Achilles heel. "Translating these provisions will remain a significant challenge and the opportunities for legal dispute could generate a wave of litigation," says USAid. mutual distrust The US says there are early signs of mutual distrust on the part of Government and civil society regarding motivation and capacity to deliver. "The US promises to build the capacities of these groups to effectively engage both the national and the country governments."

USAid claims successive Kenyan leaderships have excluded the youth from economic activities through rent-seeking and corruption. To change the equation, it promises aggressive action that will see the youth, comprising 65 per cent of the population, take a lead in the affairs of the country. USAid in its five-year plan explains it is not going to fund any non-communicable disease such as cancer, despite concern from the Government. The Government last year questioned why there was skewed funding in favour of HIV. According to the Kenya Economic Survey 2014, malaria accounted for the highest number of deaths at 23,789 in 2013 followed by pneumonia (22,918), cancer (13,720). Deaths from Aids were 11,448.

Source: Standard Media