British funding of a 10-year-old aid package to drought-hit communities in Kenya is to end in 2024 as part of a new economic partnership with the country, the international development secretary has told the Guardian.

The £143m programme, which has helped 600,000 vulnerable people in emergencies via direct cash transfers – a system criticised by some Conservatives as the equivalent of exporting the dole – is the first UK aid project of its kind that will be wholly taken over by a government in Africa.

In an interview with the Guardian on her first visit to the continent as secretary of state, Penny Mordaunt said Kenya was a “profound success story” that had “stepped up and taken responsibility” by investing in its own people.

Poorer countries must 'put their hands in their pockets': UK warns of cuts to aid Read more

Last week, Mordaunt warned Britain would cut aid spending to developing countries if they failed to invest in their own people. Setting out her priorities as a new development secretary, she said she would focus increasingly on helping developing countries “stand on their own two feet” and pledged to use aid as a “Brexit-ready proposition to boost trade and investment with developing countries” in a mutually beneficial relationship.

Speaking to the Guardian in Nairobi at the weekend before flying to Somalia, Mordaunt said Kenya was a perfect model of this. “Kenya is an example of a country which I think is doing the right thing.

“There will be other nations who have said: why would they invest in vaccinations and start building up particular services because the international community is going to do it for them? That doesn’t help them transition out of extreme poverty or start building the public systems that they need to look after their people.”



Helped by DfID-backed reforms that have increased access to credit for the country’s 50 million people from 25% to 75% in a decade and removed trade barriers by cutting customs clearance times, Kenya has jumped 30 places in the World Bank’s ease of doing business rankings in the last three years.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Turkana and Marsabit are two of the areas affected by the drought in Kenya. Photograph: Jennifer Huxta/The Guardian

Mordaunt travelled to Marsabit, one of four counties devastated by east Africa’s drought, to see how the DfID-backed cash transfer system, aimed at helping families suffering hunger during drought, was saving lives.

She spoke to women, including the mother of a severely disabled nine-year-old boy, in the villages identified as the most vulnerable. Inside a manyatta, a traditional twig hut, the MP for Portsmouth sat with Ratino Lopusike, the mother of Daniel, who needs 24-hour care, to ask how the money had helped her and about her life in this remote community with a disabled child.

Lopusike, 50, who has five other children, told her the £40 she receives every two months had changed her life, and helped her feed and educate her children.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Daniel Lopusike with his mother, Ratino, during a visit from Penny Mordaunt, in Marsabit, Kenya. Photograph: Russell Watkins/DfID

“It has helped me get medication for my child,” Lopusike told her. “Most of the time I am here with him because he cannot be alone. But I now have goats and milk and I can feed the children.”

In the neighbouring village of Loglogo, in Marsabit, women explained that they used the money to replace livestock who died in the drought, and to set up small businesses, making jewellery. A related $10m (£7.2m) DfID crisis scheme, distributed through the World Food Programme, is also helping 71,000 families with malnourished children, pregnant and breastfeeding women.

The Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP), supported by DfID, uses satellite imagery of drought-hit vegetation to identify the needy, while biometric fingerprint technology guards against fraud. The Kenyan government, which currently provides 65% of its funding, is now using it to identify disabled families.

In response to critics of cash transfers, the secretary of state said research showed that they helped give dignity to recipients. They were better at supporting the needy than traditional humanitarian aid, “which is not as effective in reaching people it needs to and doesn’t yield anything other than alleviating that crisis”.

“Here it’s yielded a social protection system which the government in short order will be taking over completely,” she said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Leesa Nolaso, another beneficiary of cash transfers. Photograph: Russell Watkins/DfID

DfID will continue to help fund the programme for the next five years, and has provided another £19.8m for 2018, when it expects the drought to continue.

Mordaunt has expanded cash transfers in other areas, including to help Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

She said DfID would continue to alleviate humanitarian crises and assist people in need, as well as building in sustainability for the future.

“Using our heads in deciding how to spend that money doesn’t also preclude using our hearts,” she said.

“If we’re in the business of humanitarian relief, directing that money to … alleviate the crisis and assist people in times of need, but, as well, reducing the likelihood of us having to do that in years to come, I think, is a good spend.”

Mordaunt, who took over in November from Priti Patel after she was forced to resign, has said she wants to place a commitment to tackling discrimination of disabled people at the heart of her development strategy. This weekend, the former disabilities minister announced that Kenya is to co-host the UK’s first global disability summit, to be held this year.

Closer to home, Mordaunt is keen to work proactively with other government departments, but feels DfID has a role to play in extending transparency and efficiency. She would like to roll out DfID’s “development tracker”, which shows where aid money is spent and how, to other Whitehall departments.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mordaunt at a Unicef clinic in Turkana, Kenya. Photograph: Russell Watkins/DfID

“When I’m looking at other departments and how we can do better, I am thinking about transparency and how we can help improve the quality of what is out there. We have some great systems in DfID that show the benefits of projects, show where they are against our objectives … Enabling it to be rolled out across Whitehall would be beneficial.”

In 2016, other government departments accounted for 18% of the UK’s £13.4bn aid spend. Some humanitarian organisations have expressed concern that this money is not being managed as well or transparently as funding that goes through DfID.