US Funding for Kenya Slashed by over 50 Percent in Trump’s Proposed 2020 Budget

The United States is set to reduce aid funds given to Kenya by more than 50 percent in the 2020 financial year that begins in October.

President Trump’s proposed budget issued on Monday calls for deep cuts in US funding for sub-Saharan countries and programs.

If the budget is approved, various US development initiatives in Kenya will get funding of $43.5 million from the $102 million provided in 2018.

The overall US economic and development assistance for sub-Saharan Africa will get funding of $665 million in 2020 from the $1.5 billion given by Congress for 2018.

The White House says these cuts are a way of reducing dependency on US assistance by African nations and increasing self-sufficiency.

Citing the “Prosper Africa” plan it outlined in December 2018, the Trump administration says it wants to “fundamentally transform the nature of our bilateral relationship with these countries from an aid-based focus to true trade partnership.”

Health initiatives in Kenya undertaken by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will get $54 million in the next year, compared to $82 million disbursed in 2018.

Funds for HIV program, Pepfar will also be reduced to $276 million from $441 million the US spent in 2018.

Trump administration further seeks to end US support for the African Development Bank and for the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) that was started by President Obama.

Congressman Eliot Engel, who is the chairperson of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, has predicted that Trump’s attempt to cut the budget for international affairs will flop like has been the case in the past two years.

“For the third year in a row, the president’s foreign affairs budget request is dead on arrival on Capitol Hill,” says Engel.

“I predict that once again the Trump administration’s attempt to hollow out our international affairs budget will meet bipartisan rejection in Congress.”