EDITORIAL: Don’t allow graft in health sector to derail donor aid

What you need to know:

Management of HIV/ Aids is a very expensive affair that a country with an economy the size of Kenya’s can hardly afford on its own.
Data compiled by the National Aids Control Council shows that Clinton Foundation, Belgium’s MSF, Japan International Co-operation Agency, and Britain’s DfID are some of the donors that have scaled down funding.
When donors begin to scale down their involvement, the immediate fear is that gains recorded so far could easily be rolled back.

Reports that donors have been gradually cutting funding for HIV/Aids projects in Kenya, are to say the least, depressing. Even more unsettling is the disclosure that financial irregularities at Afya House have something to do with this potentially costly decision.

Management of HIV/ Aids is a very expensive affair that a country with an economy the size of Kenya’s can hardly afford on its own. Kenya stands among countries with the highest HIV infection rates despite decades of intervention efforts.

READ: Donors cut HIV funds on reports of fraud at Afya

Prevention and management of HIV will always be a very expensive undertaking that requires a long -term relationship with donors.

Yet cases of corruption – including suspect contracts running into billions of shillings at the Health ministry – and the government’s reluctance to deal with it, have been allowed to undermine healthy relations with financiers.

Data compiled by the National Aids Control Council shows that Clinton Foundation, Belgium’s MSF, Japan International Co-operation Agency, and Britain’s DfID are some of the donors that have scaled down funding. The US government has, for instance, been cutting funding from $514 million (Sh52.9 billion) in 2013 to Sh49.6 billion last year.

For a country where the burden of HIV/Aids infection is well documented, Kenya cannot afford to go down that path.

When donors begin to scale down their involvement, the immediate fear is that gains recorded so far could easily be rolled back. The disease has killed many bread winners and forced a significant portion of the aging population to go through the motions of raising young children again.

It is time to say enough. Kenya has a chance to repair its image to avert the slow but coming fallout with donors.
It must start by conducting thorough investigations and punishing those culpable in the numerous allegation of high profile corruption at the ministry.

Otherwise, the other option is too scary to contemplate. Withdrawal of donors can only mean that the free ARVs that most patients have come to take for granted at the moment may soon disappear from hospitals.