EU lawmakers want to freeze aid to Kenya

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Union should freeze all aid to the Kenyan government until the crisis over President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election is solved, members of the European Parliament said on Wednesday.

The lawmakers, who criticised the EU executive for disbursing 40.6 million euros (30.3 million pounds) of aid a day after the election, said the result was not credible and called for a fresh vote if a fair recount was not possible.

The European Parliament "asks for the freezing of all further budgetary support to the government of Kenya until a political resolution to the present crisis has been found", Euro MPs said in a draft resolution discussed on Wednesday.

The disputed election has dented Kenya's democratic credentials and rattled donors. Post-election turmoil, in which hundreds have been killed, has hit Kenya's economy as well as supplies to east and central African neighbours.

Although its aid is limited compared with what it gives poorer African countries, the EU is one of Kenya's top donors, providing 290 million euros between 2002 and 2007.

Of that package 40.6 million was disbursed for a poverty reduction programme on December 28, a day after the election.

EU Aid and Development Commissioner Louis Michel came under fire for that on Wednesday. "It is unacceptable that that 40.6 million euros was sent a day after the election," British EU lawmaker Glenys Kinnock said, echoed by many others.

Michel said the EU executive had waited for the election to be over to disburse the aid so as not to interfere with the campaign. It then disbursed it, before doubts over the results had emerged, to meet a year-end deadline.

Michel ruled out suspending aid immediately, saying it could hurt the Kenyan people, but reiterated threats of a suspension of budgetary aid if the crisis remained unsolved.