We blame those who surround Trump

There is a newfound temptation by scholars of public policy to offend foreign aid, its foundational motive and sacrosanct role in the lives of intended beneficiaries; mostly in third world outposts ravaged by contagious pestilence, tribal hatred and punishing terrain.

In a week when the president of Kenya warned those with limited education to return to school after lunch before measuring wits with those with PhDs, weighing of words has not only become a moral imperative but also a national duty going forward.

It’s exactly one week since President Donald Trump unleashed a wrecking ball on the walls of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the philanthropy arm of the United States government that has been feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and mending broken hearts – for more than 63 years now.

By the stroke of a pen – and in a populist move to excite his fan base most of whom are in countries where the executive order spells a death knell to their very survival – the newly reelected US president is now a prayer item in religious gatherings across the third world Bible belt.

Since the walls of USAID started coming down, Christian evangelicals are depositing short notes in prayer boxes across Africa with requests for God to protect President Donald Trump from any malevolent forces that may look at him with evil eyes, with an addendum for God to remember their traumatized friends and loved ones whose livelihoods have been affected by the spending cuts, and a prayer for the smooth transition of their disconsolate children about to start downgrading to polling stations masquerading as public schools.

Foreign sources of cash flow

Africa is a continent of bewildering contradiction. On one hand we have a fanatical population who abandoned their traditional religion to swear by the the holy teachings of an imported one whose founders peg their daily catch on selling hope for a better tomorrow in a land they only see in the movies. On the other hand, they revile their local governments for relying on foreign sources of cash flow while conducting neurotic lectures on the adoption of local solutions to local problems.

Since the USAID was ripped apart by the shocking news from the White House last week, Africa has been gripped by the triple threat of fear, pain and anger – cutting across all the sociodemographic facets of livelihood, without exception whatsoever.

Fans of Donald Trump in Africa, who have been breathing normally due to the benevolence of USAID and the Democratic Party, are now begging their local contractors to accompany their termination letters with a fully-kitted ambulance on the emergency lane. It gets worse if they have loved ones on lifesaving medicine and school children building their muscles from soup kitchens. 

Those who mean well for their countrymen and women do not go out of their way to side with any decision that aggravates their suffering, regardless of political persuasion or moral belief system. Chapter 10 of the constitution requires every well-meaning Kenyan to be a burden bearer for the preservation of human dignity, social justice, and to at all times; protect marginalized and minority groups from the excesses of state and non-state actors. Any ideology that is repugnant to the furtherance of these national values and principles of governance, it goes without saying, should be beaten back and dismissed in-situ.

This is not to say the USAID was an ironclad global development philanthropy arm. There’s a proverb in the infectious disease world that says every arm needs a jab, and certainly USAID is not exempt. Since time immemorial, doubts have been raised about the sustainable impact of the development assistance received from the American people to the third world, and with the disbandment of the USAID the noise can only rise one decibel higher.

Lifesaving medication

Even those with a PhD in global development agree with us who never went to school, that foreign aid, when placed in the able hands of the right people, can turn distilled water into red wine at the touch of a button. The positive prospects become even rosier when those with the Midas touch entrusted by the development aid are surrounded by stronger public institutions protected by constitutional guardrails, the democratic rule of law, and a general citizenry empowered to go through every spending with a polished toothcomb.

President Donald Trump is not a bad man we can only blame those who surround him, goes another famous African proverb. However, he will have to join those misadvising in the list of shame, if he consistently turns on his television set to watch the carnage that his decree on USAID is bringing to the lives and livelihoods of frontline workers in far lung outposts and waving the concerns with the alacrity of a belching patron.

In excess of 8 million residents in the Sudan – alone – are living on the edge, as humanitarian agencies withdraw their volunteers on the frontline affected by the funding freeze. Emergency ambulances are no longer available to innocent civilians caught in the crossfire of warring factions. Medics working in the maternal and child health unites of hospital facilities in Africa are being forced to tell mothers to pray for safe delivery in the confines of their smoky huts.

You can still criticize your local government officials for constructing their large intestines from the proceeds of foreign aid, while at the same time reminding global development partners not to switch off the life support machine your loved one is currently breathing on.

Let no one lie to you that the two are mutually exclusive, because only you know the pain you’re going through with those on lifesaving medication who are currently under your care. True Christians are supposed to be their brothers and sisters’ keepers. May we never fail the vulnerable in society at their most hour of need for political expediency.