ABSTRACT
What happens politically among major powers and the relations between countries affects what goes on in Kenya to some degree. When there was a change in funding in the US, a withdrawal of support, for programs like PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief) and a few other things it affected us. In Kenya, when the US scaled down the activities, it not only affected the CDC but the Walter Reed Project as well. When international bodies change particular policies, it affects us. One clear example, we were not able to put in a military hospital because of the change of politics under Margaret Thatcher and (Ronald) Reagan, as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. You see, when it collapsed we lost funding. What was good for the international community was bad for somebody else, us. So what is happening internationally really affects Kenya, including our science and our ability to conduct medical research. Even during the period of structural adjustment programs, which was at the beginning of the 1990s, it affected us because they stopped further employment of staff by various government organizations, including at KEMRI.
