Additional Context: Devex journalist Ayenat Mersie looked into the impacts of U.S. aid cuts in Kenya one year after the initial funding freezes and terminations. According to her reporting, the secondary effects emerging from the abrupt reduction in U.S. funding have added to ongoing debt pressures, exposing strain in Kenya’s pastoralist economies and public health system.

This quote is attributed to Bernard Njiri, a public finance analyst at the Nairobi-based Institute of Public Finance. According to Njiri, funding from development partners flowing directly into Kenya’s health sector fell from 87 billion Kenyan shillings in 2024 to 26 billion in 2025 — a decline of 61 billion. Government allocations have increased, but not by enough to fill the gap.

Source: Devex