President Donald Trump is dismantling USAID. He accuses the agency of waste and funding projects that have no beneficial interest to the United States.

More importantly, he wants US humanitarian assistance to align with US strategic interests. As they say, he who pay the piper calls the tune. Trump has called the tune, and the world is scrambling to align.

In Kenya, this has caused a major disruption, particularly in the health sector. Many Kenyans have been depending on USAID-funded programmes for life-saving medicaments. Though Trump has given a reprieve to life-saving interventions, the uncertainty is palpable across the country. Government officials are wringing their hands in angst.

But, however disruptive Trump’s order is, this is the best thing that has happened. The government completely blissfully abdicated its responsibility for funding critical care for its citizens, ceding it to foreign governments. It never ever once asked itself the question, what if … It has been caught completely flatfooted.

The USAID crisis must mark the end of foreigners funding critical government health programmes. This funding must be must be included in the annual budget. Push USAID funding to peripheral health concerns where it matters little even if the person in the US White House throws a tantrum. So government officials must stop twiddling their thumbs and gnashing their teeth and get to work!

Secondly, the government must adopt Trump’s mantra. USAID, and other donor funding, must align with the country’s national goals. USAID and other donor funding is channelled through non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Kenya has over 12,000 registered NGOs, which receive the humongous sum of Sh150 billion annually. Only 3,000 NGOs file returns with the regulator, the Public Benefits Organisations Regulatory Authority (formerly the NGO Co-ordination Board), as required by law.

What does this mean? The government has no idea what most NGOs are doing, the true amount of money being channelled into Kenya from “donors”, or all donors funding NGOs. This is dangerous and shows complete malaise on the part of the regulator.

How really do NGOs operate? Many do not leave Nairobi, even when all their programmes are upcountry. Their top officials live incredible lifestyles in Nairobi, funded by money meant for the poorest in society. They have zero compunction about this. The NGO sector has consequently become one huge gravy train with zero accountability to anybody. No wonder the vast majority of them do not file annual returns. They know their reports would probably not stand the “smell test”.

They say that a good crisis should not be allowed to go to waste. The government should use this opportunity to shake up the NGO sector. NGO programmes must align with government development blueprints and targets, be it Vision 2030, Bottom-Up Transformation Agenda (BETA), etc. They must also incorporate the strategic plans of county governments where they operate.

Emoluments must reflect budgets and the ethos of financial prudence and ethical management of resources. They cannot be fundraising in the name of poverty-stricken Kenyans and then live five-star lives in the city. Charity work must become a calling for those willing to embrace thrift.

The regulator must also impose a co-ordination mechanism on NGOs. There is too much destructive competition and wasteful duplication. One can wager that programmes USAID was undertaking in Kenya would have been achieved efficiently with much less than the Sh30 billion spent annually.

NGOs must be subjected to auditable public procurement structures. Their salary structures must be made public, just like the government’s are. NGOs receive money on behalf of the public. They cannot spend it as they wish. They must be accountable to that very public, and the regulator’s job is to ensure this very accountability. It has clearly let Kenyans down badly in streamlining the NGO sector. It is time to wake up.

Rather than continuing to whine, the government can achieve two very critical outcomes from the USAID crisis – wean critical health programmes from donor dependence, and streamline the rogue NGO sector once and for all. It has decisions to make.

— gathukara@gmail.com