Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has appealed to the US government to reconsider its decision to freeze funding of the USAID programmes.
In a statement dated Wednesday, March 19, Raila revealed that he had made the plea during a meeting with Ambassador Marc Dillard, the Charge d' Affaires of the US Embassy in Nairobi.
The ODM boss explained that many people would be affected given that some of the funding was used to support humanitarian efforts in Kenya and across the world.
Therefore, he opined that President Donald Trump's administration needed to reconsider the move.
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"We reviewed the state of the Kenyan nation and political developments in the USA," he wrote.
"I expressed my deep worries about the crippling of USAID and appealed to the US government to rethink decisions that will affect access to humanitarian services, particularly access to life-saving medication."
Earlier, Treasury CS John Mbadi revealed that the freezing of USAID funding had created a deficit of Ksh52 billion for development programmes in the country with the health sector among those affected.
"With the affected state departments, we are reviewing our budgetary allocations to prioritise funding for sectors such as health and food security. If this funding stops abruptly, we cannot wait until the 2025/2026 budget," the CS stated.
Trump froze USAID programmes after his inauguration following claims that the resources were being misused and funding programmes that did not have any benefit to the American people.
