US embassy cable - 05NAIROBI3289

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NAIROBI 003289 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/12/2015 
TAGS: KHIV, KCOR, PREL, PGOV, EAID, KE 
SUBJECT: NGILU: NARC DISAPPOINTING; MY MINISTRY CORRUPT AND 
AGAINST ME 
 
REF: A. 04 NAIROBI 5096 
 
     B. 04 NAIROBI 5184 
     C. NAIROBI 1828 
     D. NAIROBI 2878 
     E. NAIROBI 3170 
 
Classified By: Emboff Tad Brown for reasons 1.4 b and d. 
 
1.  SUMMARY.  Health Minister Charity Ngilu confided to the 
Ambassador August 10 that she has lost faith in the Kibaki 
government's commitment to fighting high-level corruption. 
She pointed to the resurgence of unsavory figures like 
Nicolas Biwott as evidence that NARC, once in power, had 
abandoned its pre-election principals in favor of Moi-era 
backroom politics.  Ngilu saluted USG contributions to 
strengthening Parliament and to revealing tender 
irregularities in the Ministry of Health (MOH).  Lamenting 
that MOH staff are unresponsive to her leadership and often 
work to undermine her, Ngilu bluntly stated: "The Ministry of 
Health is corrupt."  We share her assessment and increasingly 
view her as a potential ally in our efforts to protect USG 
investments in Kenya, especially in the health sector.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
2.  Ambassador Bellamy, accompanied by Mission Inter-Agency 
Coordinator Buck Buckingham and Tad Brown (notetaker), 
received Kenyan Minister for Health Charity Ngilu at the 
Ambassador's residence on August 10.  Ngilu had specifically 
asked to meet outside of her office because she could not 
speak freely in front of her own staff. 
 
Mamma NARC's Disappointment 
--------------------------- 
 
3.  Ngilu's political banter reflected her position as a 
popular and powerful Cabinet Minister and founding member of 
the 2002 winning NARC coalition, who is nonetheless an 
outsider to Kenya's most powerful (and largely male) 
political cabals: Kibaki's inner circle, Odinga's LDP, and 
the opposition KANU.  Marginalized even in her tribal base 
(presidential aspirant Stephen Musyoka enjoys the strongest 
Kamba support), Ngilu is a relatively independent actor in 
Kenya politics, who has nonetheless occasionally courted 
Kibaki's patronage for political cover. 
 
4.  Ngilu openly expressed her disappointment with NARC, 
specifically the rapidity with which pre-election principals 
and promises dissipated once NARC took power, only to be 
replaced with much the same mentality that characterized 
Moi's rule.  As an example, she pointed to Kiraitu Murungi 
who, in his new role as Minister for Justice and 
Constitutional Affairs, had told Ngilu he would do anything, 
even sidle up to Biwott and other unsavory KANU leaders, to 
keep NARC in power.  Ngilu expressed disgust that NARC 
leaders had funded Biwott's campaign to wrest control of KANU 
from Uhuru Kenyatta, thereby neutralizing any opposition to 
NARC (ref b). 
 
5.  Blaming the US and other developed nations for 
historically not opposing corruption in African regimes, 
Ngilu applauded the decision to bar entry to Biwott and 
Murungaru from entering the US and UK respectively (refs a 
and e).  Ngilu dismissed the sincerity of the GOK's 
anti-corruption posture.  She echoed Musyoka's assessment 
(ref d) that the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) led 
by Justice Ringera was a political tool, tightly 
circumscribed from uncovering corruption tied to Kibaki or 
his associates.  Ngilu ridiculed the GOK's wealth declaration 
policy as a "farce," meaningless so long as the declarations 
are not made public. 
 
Parliament- An Emerging Force? 
------------------------------ 
6.  Ngilu was still beaming about Parliament's decision 
earlier that day to refuse the budget of Roads Minister Raila 
Odinga because the funds were disproportionately allocated to 
districts in and around Kibaki's constituency.  Referring to 
USG support, through USAID, for "Parliamentary strengthening" 
programs, Ngilu observed, "your investment has borne fruit." 
Ngilu averred that Parliament would increase its autonomy and 
authority, pointing as an example to the health committee, 
which promised to audit more actively GOK-funded AIDS 
programs.  Asked whether the National AIDS Control Council 
(NACC) had been cleaned up since the release of a damning 
report on corruption (ref c), Ngilu sneered that NACC is 
still open to abuse, run by bad people, and overstepping its 
proper role as a coordinating body. 
 
It's a Big Ministry 
------------------- 
 
7.  Ngilu openly revealed her deep suspicions about MOH 
personnel and her senior staff and frankly admitted that she 
is largely ignorant of much of the Ministry's operations, 
including significant financial decisions.  As conversation 
turned to health matters, we found ourselves briefing Ngilu 
on happenings within her own Ministry.  She seemed, for 
example, unaware that Dr. Tom Mboya (the object of our 
greatest concern as the head of the Administrative Support 
Unit for the Global Fund in Kenya) was directly interfering 
in grants worth hundreds of millions of dollars, frustrating 
the efforts of the coordinating committees rather than acting 
as a secretariat.  Ngilu made clear that Health Permanent 
Secretary Patrick Khaemba (put in his position at the behest 
 
SIPDIS 
of Minister for Local Government Musikari Kombo) ignores her 
when he is not actively working to undermine or embarrass her 
as part of a campaign by unnamed Cabinet members who would 
like Ngilu removed. 
 
8.  Ngilu bluntly stated, "The Ministry of Health is 
corrupt."  She explained that much of her staff, including 
senior officers, is disloyal and unresponsive.  Ngilu was 
openly grateful for a private management consultant to the 
Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) who was funded by USAID 
and has been her only source of information about 
questionable procurements.  Ngilu complained that her efforts 
to track down more than KSh. 500 million (about $6.6 million) 
for which she cannot account have met with a wall of silence 
from her staff.  One contract, for mental illness medication, 
had been inexplicably inflated to purchase more than 10 times 
the country's needs at a loss of more than $2 million. 
 
9.  Ngilu asked how we might help her address MOH shortfalls 
in staffing and transportation.  Thankful that Kenya, unlike 
other African countries, has an abundance of trained but 
unemployed nurses, Ngilu said that the MOH had been 
authorized to hire 1,000 new nurses and that the Clinton 
Foundation and GFATM would fund an additional 120 and 500 
respectively.  We offered to use the Capacity project help 
assess and address, through contract workers, Kenya's health 
personnel shortfalls.  On vehicles, the Ambassador explained 
that we could not accede to the secretive and arbitrary 
manner with which Mboya had repeatedly foisted vehicle 
purchases into Global Fund programs.  We promised to work 
with other donors (JICA, DIFD) to carry out and meet the 
recommendations of an independent rapid needs assessment. 
 
Comment: 
 
11. This meeting confirmed our evolving view that Ngilu is 
struggling to manage the MOH.  She is smart, dedicated, and a 
popular politician.  She has managed to succeed, first in 
business, then in Kenya's murderous political arena, in an 
environment that is hostile to authoritative, freethinking 
women.  But she has minimal formal education and no 
experience heading up a large bureaucracy, especially one 
beset with entrenched corruption and the lackeys of her 
political enemies.  Even if her own staff wasn't working 
against her, Ngilu does not have the support (a chief of 
staff, a deputies meeting, chains of information, etc) that 
we take for granted. 
 
12. We will increase our efforts to share with Ngilu 
information regarding the health sector and possibly 
political matters as well.  She may be our best ally in 
trying to protect USG investments in Kenya's health sector, 
and she seems to believe we are one of the few players she 
can trust. 
BELLAMY