September 13, 2000
The only reason Kenyans should applaud the IMF's resolve to push for faster debt relief for the world's poorest is that it shows the IMF heart may be softening after all. Unfortunately, not all industrialised countries involved agree on the need to speed up relief to the world's 40 Highly Indebted Poor Countries. The United States is the chief culprit in this, not because the Executive is unwilling to provide the funds, but because Congress will not approve the method the IMF wants to use to pay for the debt relief.
This reluctance came out clearly during the G-8 meeting in Japan in July, when the leaders of the world's richest countries insisted on an increasingly unsustainable set of conditionalities before granting the relief.
There has been a great deal of talk about debt relief for HIPCs since 1996, but only 10 countries have so far benefited. However, according to new IMF chief Horst Koehler, his institution is seeking ways of speeding up the process for another 10. It is even thinking of easing up some of the requirements to facilitate the process.
That is good thinking. The idea of a group of well-fed folk sitting in some fancy penthouse lounge determining the fate of hungry millions with a few careless phrases is not at all appealing. And the idea of lender nations or institutions introducing neo-colonialism through the back door by insisting on being told what use the loans forgiven will be put to can be summed up in one word – blackmail.
There is no good reason the lender nations should not heed the IMF in its new-found determination to make life for the world's destitutes more worthwhile. There is enough food for every soul on this planet if only the few rump-fed ronyons would drum up just a little sense humanity for the deprived majority.
In the meantime, something that always baffles is that, although Kenya owes external lenders a whopping Sh397 billion (March figures), it was never been considered among the HIPCs.
This ought to be a matter of both pride and deep shame for us. Neither individuals nor sovereign states want to be known as beggars, which means that, globally, we saved face.
But it is a shame that Kenya is regarded as capable of pulling itself up by its own bootstraps and becoming an economic tiger in less than a decade if only its economic policies were in order, if only there was not so much corruption. Clearly, we have no reason to be proud of our status.
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