Trump's aid cut is the wake-up call Kenya desperately needed

People protest against US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's plan to shutdown USAID outside the US Capitol on February 5, 2025. [AFP]

This week, my attention was caught by a soul-crushing scene on television. A weak mother stood outside a Nairobi hospital, clutching her child in despair. The reporter's voice trembled, funding for life-saving medical programmes had been frozen.

Patients on HIV treatment, cancer patients and malnourished children were now staring at uncertainty. Yet, even more shocking than their plight was the reaction from our own senior Health Ministry officials, obviously troubled, scrambled for answers. Their panic suggested something far deeper than the loss of foreign funding - it exposed a disturbing truth we have long ignored.