Author: Mike Mwaniki & Nyabonyi Kazungu
Date: January 23, 2007
Type of article: News
Source: The Daily Nation - only available online by registration and paid subscription fee

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Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai yesterday renewed her call for Western countries to write-off debts totalling billions of shillings owed by Kenya and other poor nations.

Prof Maathai urged church leaders to spearhead the cancellation of the debts by G-8 countries.

“As the church, we have a moral duty to stand up and raise our voices to the G-8 countries by reminding the leaders of those rich nations that the debts are illegitimate,” she said.

Prof Maathai stated: “The debt crisis remains one of the key obstacles to fighting poverty in the African continent, as well as in Asia and Latin America.”

According to experts, Kenya has repaid more than Sh3.5 trillion for the Sh1.1 trillion originally borrowed from external creditors.

During the 2005/2006 Budget, for example, the Finance ministry proposed that Sh112 billion be spent on servicing the debt. 

Prof Maathai said: “If the illegitimate debt is to be cancelled, churches, civil society organisations and parliamentarians will need to put increased pressure on leaders in the North and in the South to do so.”
But Bishop Martin Kivuva of the Catholic Church said that people should not call for debt cancellation in a country where there was no justice. 

“As we lobby donor countries to cancel Kenya’s debt, government officials should be transparent on how they spend public money,” the Machakos bishop told the ecumenical forum. 

“The Western participants at the WSF were trying to push their governments to have policies friendly to the poor people of Africa to remove conditionalities which hurt poor workers,” he said.

Social development Elsewhere, Culture and Sports minister Maina Kamanda said Unesco in collaboration with ministers of social development was exploring the possibility of establishing a forum to serve as a platform for dialogue and exchange of ideas among implementers of social development policy at regional and international levels.

He was speaking during the opening session of inter-regional social development stakeholders meeting at the Windsor Golf and Country Hotel.