“From then on, I don’t know,“ Ekiru Kidalio said, worried about the lack of treatment for measles and HIV among other things.
President Donald Trump's administration has announced dramatic cuts to USAID whose annual budget was close to $43 billion, more than 40 percent of the world's humanitarian aid.
USAID employed 64 staff, including nurses and clinical officers, out of around 400 employees at the hospital.
“Everything was stopped... and then the commodities (drugs) were not received,“ Kidalio added, voicing particular concern over shortages of measles vaccines.
The local governor publicly urged the restoration of USAID-funded programmes when US charge d'affaires Marc Dillard visited last week.
“There is a lot of worry because the US has ended their support,“ resident Lydia Muya, 32, told AFP.
“We see that is now a very big risk to us, because we depend on those medicines, so most of the people will suffer,“ said Muya.
- 'How will I eat?' -
Protests broke out last month after news that rations, already lowered last year, would be further reduced because of the cuts to US foreign aid spending.
When asked if supplies were arriving, his response was blunt: “No. With what money? No funding, no stuff.
He estimated as much as 40 percent of the workforce had already been laid off as a result of the US cuts.
The World Food Programme (WFP), which supports just under 200,000 Kakuma refugees, told AFP they had cut rations, delivered as food and cash, to 40 percent of their previous level.
“How many days will I eat? The food can end so fast,“ she said, asking to remain anonymous as she was unsure if she was allowed to speak to journalists.
“If you go now to the hospital there is no medicine, they just check you,“ she said.
- Good aid, bad operations? -
“The camp has been managed as an emergency, so they were not preparing people” to become less dependent on aid, a second aid worker in Kakuma told AFP by telephone.
The first aid worker also voiced his frustration, saying budgets were eaten up by operational costs such as staffing overheads, transport and bureaucracy.
Like other aid workers, he worries their programme sometimes creates dependency without offering a future.
“As a person who has worked in multiple areas, sometimes you wonder if you are really helping or if you are enabling,“ he said.
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