US NOT FUNDING YES

The United States is not directly funding the review process, a Cabinet minister has said.

Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo said the US, like other donors supporting reforms, were channelling funds through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which he said has established a “basket” into which all donor funds for civic education and voter registration were directed.

“The State Department is not directly financing the proposed constitution,” he said.

The minister was responding to claims by three US congressmen that American financial support for the review process would rise from the pledged Sh158 million ($2 million) to Sh790 million ($10 million).

Republican congressmen Chris Smith (New Jersey), Darrell Issa (California), and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Florida) want all funds spent by the State Department and USAid on the process investigated.

The congressmen accused the Obama administration of spending US taxpayers’ money on the Kenyan review process, which they claimed would entrench abortion, in contravention of the laws of the United States.

“This week, I learnt that US taxpayer expenditures in support of the proposed constitution may exceed $10 million (Sh790 million) — five times what we originally suspected,” said Mr Smith.

An official at the US embassy in Nairobi said the Obama administration supported the reform agenda to avert a repeat of the wave of violence that swept across the country following the disputed December 2007, presidential elections.

Public affairs officer John Haynes did not indicate how financial support was reaching Kenya, but said leaders had been urged to unite behind the proposed of laws.

Mr Kilonzo, however, said the congressmen were misleading Americans.

He invited them to come to Kenya before the referendum, saying they were preoccupied with President Obama’s perceived Kenyan interests without considering America’s strategic interests.

“Governance reforms will directly affect trafficking, piracy, paedophilia, and security along the East African coastline,” he said.