Last night’s Dispatches programme on Channel 4 was an excellent expose of corruption in Africa. Sorious Samura, a Sierra Leone journalist visited the huge slum of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya to illustrate how the poor have to contribute money to officials in order to survive. From building a home in a slum to finding a job was a shocking tale of paying bribes. There was generally criticism and rightly that the make poverty history campaign is a joke and the the priority should be to eliminate corruption. Sorious Samura also showed how easy it was to set up bogus charities so that thieves can obtain funds trickling through from foreign aid. DFID funds are clearly being looted as we write. Sorious Samura finished the programme in Sierra Leone where illustrated how corruption was rooted in the primary schools here teachers not receiving their pay expected some little payment in kind and cash from their pupils, we have been funding Sierra Leone for free primary education for some time so clearly some people have been making a lot of money from DFID funding, that funding has recently been suspended.
Corruption in Africa should be a priority concern and target, aid should be suspended until corruption is dealt with.
Posted by zebrambizi
