NGILU: NARC DISAPPOINTING; MY MINISTRY CORRUPT AND

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