World Relief Canada closes Kenya office

International aid agency World Relief Canada has announced it will close its Kenya office at the end of March 2015.

In a brief notice in the March 17 edition of theNation, the non-governmental organisation said it will close the office on March 31 but gave no other details.

In an email message sent to the nation.co.ke in response to a request for additional information, the agency’s Ontario-based CEO Laurie Cook said the NGO had reorganised its operations and had decided to coordinate all its charity work from Canada.

“World Relief Canada has realigned its international strategy and decided to coordinate all our operations from Canada,” Ms Cook said.

The agency funds programs in Tanzania, South Sudan, Liberia, Ethiopia, Burundi and Sierra Leone, Ms Cook said.

She said her agency has operated in Kenya for about six years and has no other regional office, adding that the charity works with aid groups in Asia but has “never had offices there which of course is part of the reason behind our decision.”

CHARITIES SCRUTINISED

She added that the agency would continue to work with its partners in Africa and would “provide support in the form of finances, training and other services to in-country groups although we also provide resources for other International NGO’s doing rehabilitation or relief work in post conflict or disaster situations”.

World Relief Canada’s planned closure comes three months after the Jubilee administration gave 12 international charities 21 days to account for their finances or be shut down.

Hundreds of other charities were blacklisted and their accounts frozen in what was described as the worst crackdown on the aid groups in Kenya’s history.

Fifteen unidentified agencies that worked mainly in northern Kenya and on the Coast were accused of funding terrorism and banned, the Nation reported in 2014.

QUESTION OF COSTS

The NGO Co-Ordination Board said then that the move to deregister the charities came after local and global investigations on their activities.

Ms Cook, however, said the NGO board’s scrutiny of charity groups in Kenya did not play any role in her agency’s decision to close its regional hub in Nairobi.

“In the end we have determined that the additional administration costs were not adding enough value to our partners to justify the costs,” she said.

“The advances in technology both in Canada and many parts of Africa have also made communications and support much more effective.”

The board also cancelled the work permits of expatriates working for the banned NGOs and vowed to continue scrutinising the work of charitable organisations operating in the country.

• Daily Nation Kenya – nation.co.ke