ABSTRACT
The previous chapters analysed the effects of aid on Kenya and gave policy prescriptions. This final chapter presents our conclusions in a different context and examines some general propositions about the purpose and effect of aid in the light of the Kenyan experience. Views about aid range from the over-simple altruistic, that it is a straightforward act of charity, to the over-simple Machiavellian, that it is the pursuit of colonialism by other means. Despite its obvious appeal to the better instincts of the people of the rich countries, economic aid has been much attacked. Aid is unpopular with the extreme of both left and right. Even where there is no ideological viewpoint to generate hostility to aid, its failure to transform the state of the poor countries has caused disillusionment among some who underestimated the difficulties in the way of their economic progress.
