Why We Shouldn't Give Money to the Third World, Reason #483789788

If you need any more reason why U.S. taxpayer money should not be given to third world countries, look no further than the recent British experience with Kenya.

The British government has issued a travel ban to more than 20 Kenyan citizens accused of corruption, and frozen funding for the ministry of education over the disappearance of US$1.3 million.

The UK was helping fund education, but the money intended for that purpose just vanished. But if you read further in the article, that scandal is just the tip of the iceberg.

Reports said Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had dropped its investigations earlier this year into the "Anglo-Leasing" affair, in which contracts worth some $100m were awarded to firms which did not exist.

The SFO said it was dropping the case because of a lack of co-operation from Kenyan agencies.

A hundred million dollars of corruption, and the British can't get any cooperation from the government of Kenya. They just have to write it off as a loss.

Kenya is hardly the most corrupt third world country out there. The sad fact is that aid money sent to so-called developing countries, with the best of intentions, often disappears into the pockets of corrupt officials. As seen in Kenya, this is not a small scale problem or an aberration; it is the rule not the exception.  I recently wrote a post called, "Wasting Money in Afghanistan," about how over fifty percent of our aid money doesn't reach its intended targets. I'm not an isolationist, and there are rare occasions where aid is warranted. But it should come with major strings attached and be carefully monitored, not be handed out like candy to enrich corrupt local officials.