KENYA MAY LOSE OUT ON THE GLOBAL FUND KITTY TO FIGHT T.B, AIDS, AND MALARIA.

A disagreement over the Global Fund kitty is threatening access of HIV patients to ARVs.

A row between NGOs involved in the fight against HIV could result in the country losing out on money from the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

A group of NGOs under the umbrella group Kenya Consortium to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is accusing one of the Fund’s principal recipients, Care International-Kenya, of being too slow to release money it was allocated.


Row between local NGOs and Care-International-Kenya threaten next round of disbursement

"While the Global Fund did its part by disbursing the money to Care International-Kenya in March, the pace of implementation has become an issue of great concern," the consortium said in a letter to National Aids Control Council.

The letter added: "We believe that if this is not addressed quickly, it could negatively impact on future rounds and even our ability to source funding for HIV and Aids elsewhere."

The consortium says unless the money is utilised and accounted for by November, the Fund is unlikely to release the next allocation.

But Care International Country Director Stephen Vaughan says his organisation has been releasing funds to groups that have accounted for previous allocations.

Mr Vaughan said: "We cannot release funds to those who have not accounted for funds already given to them." Speaking at a news conference in Nairobi recently, the director challenged the NGOs to provide clear accounts on how they spent the money already given to them."

He noted that of 58 civil society groups that receive funding from the Global Fund through his organisation, only 26 had met the Fund’s accounting criteria.

Aids activists are concerned that access to treatment could be affected if the row continues.

"This is unfortunate, because the ARVs in stock will not last long," said James Kamau, co-ordinator of Kenya Treatment Access Movement.