Germany commits Sh15 billion to fund key projects

By James Anyanzwa

Germany has committed Sh15 billion to support key development projects in Kenya over the next three years.

The funds consist of Sh11.8 billion and Sh2.9 billion for bilateral and financial cooperation respectively.

The projects earmarked to benefit from this funding include water and sanitation, agriculture, and reproductive health.

Mr Joseph Kinyua, Treasury’s Permanent Secretary, said the funding would help transform Kenya into a newly industrialised middle-income country by 2030.

“The identified projects were in line with the country’s 20-year economic blueprint (Vision2030),” Kinyua said after signing the financial agreements at the Treasury offices in Nairobi on Friday.

“There are huge opportunities for the two countries to co-operate in trade and investment,” he added.

During the talks, Germany agreed to continue its support to Kenya in governance, with special emphasis on access to justice for victims of gender-based violence, public finance reforms, and education in poor urban and peri-urban areas.

“We are confident that with the implementation of prudent macro-economic policies and appropriate structural reforms, we should achieve our development goals,” said Kinyua.

Mrs Margit Hellwig-Boette, Germany Ambassador to Kenya said Kenya-German development co-operation plays an important role in sustaining peace, fighting poverty and improving transparency.

“Therefore, the German Government is committed to lend further support to the country’s reform process,” she said.

Hellwig-Boette said the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) would contribute enormously to ensuring a peaceful and stable political situation in the country during the 2012 General Election. She said the victims of the 2007/2008 post-election violence were eager to see progress in investigations.

“One of the reasons behind this is that efforts of the Government to establish a local tribunal and punish the perpetrators have not led to tangible results,” she said.

Hellwig-Boette said the fact that Kenya is seeking for a new window to establish a local tribunal to try perpetrators, which ICC cannot take to the Hague, does not make the work of the ICC ”unnecessary.”

She said the new constitution could pave way for a peaceful development and convince Kenyans that ethnic diversity is a cultural asset and not a political liability. Hellwig-Boette said a properly devolved system, which gives empowers people, could help alleviate the risks of conflict.