Former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s comments on the new Donald Trump directives, which have seen the new US President issue halt aid to foreign countries have attracted international attention.
American billionaire Elon Musk, who also heads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is the latest powerful figure to react to Uhuru’s statement.
Taking to X, Elon reacted to the Uhuru remarks by simply remarking: “Good for him!”
Musk was reacting to a tweet made by popular X account ‘Libs of Tiktok’, as the independent news channel reposted the Kenyatta video, complete with the viral quote from the speech.
Trump signed an Executive Order reevaluating and realigning US foreign aid, saying the United States was no longer going to blindly give money with no return for the American people.
Trump tapped Musk to lead his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which the president described as aiming to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures,” and restructure federal agencies.
In keeping with the order, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on January 26 paused all US foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID) for review.
Speaking on Wednesday in Mombasa during the East Africa Region Global Health Security Summit, Uhuru said some countries had welcomed the news with a lot of grumbling.
He, however, said Trump was under no obligation to advance aid to any country.
“Why are you crying? It’s not your government, it’s not your country,” he said to a loud applause.
“He (President Trump) has no reason to give you anything. You don’t pay taxes in America; he is appealing to his people.”
Kenyatta said African countries should see the policy move as a wake-up call and find alternative ways of funding programmes that were dependent on US aid.
“Instead of crying, we should ask ourselves, ‘what are we going to do to support ourselves?”
It’s time for us to use our resources for the right things. We are the ones using them for the wrong things.”
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
