Kitt rejects calls to halt €30m development funding to Uganda

UGANDAN government ministers yesterday defended their country against suggestions Ireland should stop giving them Third World development aid.

Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Tom Kitt described calls for the Government to pull all its funding from Uganda as simplistic. The Government is providing €30 million in direct aid this year, but this is not going into Ugandan government coffers.

According to Uganda’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, James Wapakhabulo, Irish aid is ringfenced to ensure it is only spent on health, education and poverty eradication projects.