Donald Trump queries Kenya's health funding

                     

Kenya is worried over a possible withdrawal of US support for its campaign in Somalia, following a series of questions sent by incoming President Donald Trump’s team to the State Department. The fight against Al Shabaab is only one among issues concerning Africa raised by the Trump transition team, made public by the influential New York Times newspaper at the weekend.

Others questions listed hint at a possible shift in American policy on trade and emergency funding for HIV/AIDS patients. Kenya is worried because if the answers don’t appease the new administration, which takes over this Friday, it could trigger a major policy change affecting Washington’s support for the government’s counter-terrorism programme and its fight against the Aids pandemic. One of the questions drawn up by Trump’s advisers is: “We’ve been fighting Al-Shabaab for a decade, why haven’t we won?”

Speaking to The Standard on Sunday yesterday, Government spokesperson Eric Kiraithe said the questions “should certainly worry Kenya”. Concern revolves around what the Trump administration will do in the ongoing war against the Somalia-based Al Shabaab, in which the African Union forces receive crucial logistical support from the US. The inquiry, which is part of Mr Trump’s preparation for government, comes on the first anniversary of the bloody attack in El Adde, Somalia, in which Kenya lost nearly 100 soldiers at the hands of the militants. The way the Trump team has framed the question is akin to a demand for results for the billions of shillings that the US Government has sunk in the counter-terrorism offensive in the Horn of Africa. Mr Kiraithe, himself a senior security figure, remarked: “We are at war with Al-Shabaab. We appreciate the support the US has given us and we will be keen as partners in regional security if he (Trump) added more impetus to that war and even deliver a killer blow.” Kenya has troops in Somalia fighting Al-Shabaab. President Uhuru Kenyatta has repeatedly vowed the country’s soldiers will stay in Somalia until the militants are vanquished. Under outgoing President Barack Obama, the US has had “one of the deepest and most important security relationships for the United States in all of Africa”, according to Robert Godec, the US Ambassador to Kenya.