Kenya Not to Honor All IMF Conditions: PresidentThe Kenyan government will not be able to meet some of the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the resumption of aid, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has said.In a speech delivered to thousands of Kenyans on Tuesday at a stadium in Nairobi, Moi said the government would cautiously implement the stringent conditions, ignoring those detrimental to the national interests. Kenya has reached agreements with the IMF and the World Bank in good faith, he said, adding that Kenya's relations with them are cordial. However, the president said that while Kenya has agreed on the conditions prior to the resumption of aid in July, the prevailing hard economic situation, like devastating drought, power shortage and water crisis, has complicated matters. If the government declines to implement certain things, it will be because it is unable to, he said. On privatization, one of the conditions set by the IMF, Moi said that extra caution must be exercised in devolving the state-owned corporations to the private sector lest the government loses its assets. "There are issues the government has to look into before it sells off its assets," Moi said. In late July, the IMF resumed a loan of 198 million U.S. dollars to Kenya after more than three years' suspension. However, observers here say that the arrival of the loan has not stimulated the economic growth in the east African country due to the worst drought since Kenya's independence in 1963, and the growth rate this year is about to be 0.9 percent compared with last year's 1.2 percent. |
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