Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/ocha1kenya011608.html
UNITED NATIONS, January 16 -- As unarmed demonstrators are killed in the streets in Kenya, the UN on Wednesday launched an appeal for $41 million in humanitarian aid. UN Under Secretary General John Holmes said that such aid should not be subject to any political conditions. His European Union counterpart Louis Michel feels different, telling parliamentarians that "we will have to adapt the volume of our aid and assistance to Kenya in relation to the way things evolve" in the wake of Kenya's dispute December 27 election, which Mwai Kibaki claims to have won. Holmes told reporters that a group of donors he met with Wednesday indicated that aid will not be conditioned. Inner City Press asked Holmes if he has spoken with Louis Michel. "Not on this," was the answer. It might be a good idea.
The UN's appeal states that "the National Disaster Operations Center in the Office of the President has coordinated the Kenyan Government's response to the crisis." Inner City Press asked Holmes about this, and whether there are any safeguards that the UN's aid is not seen as supporting President Kibaki, in the context of the World Bank having said in a memo that the UN Development Program advised that Kibaki won cleanly and would stay in power. Holmes acknowledged that the UN is "working closely" with Kibaki's National Disaster Operations Center, but said "we are careful to make sure" the aid is "given impartially to all groups." Video here, from Minute 37:08.
But aid can be politicized in more than one way. Beyond the denial of aid to disfavored groups, widely given aid can be "branded" by one political party or movement to build its popularity. In the midst of upheaval about a contested election, one contestant "coordinating" outside aid can be a problem. Holmes said the UN "has not had that problem... I touch wood." Keep on touching (or, in American English, knocking on) that wood....
