The World Bank’s internal watchdog on Thursday criticized the organization’s handling and oversight of its investments in a chain of Kenyan schools that were subject to an internal investigation following allegations that students had been abused.

The investigation, which began in 2020, has consumed World Bank officials and shareholders in recent months and led to investigations into its investment arm, the International Finance Corporation, which invested in the education project a decade ago.

Countries on the IFC’s board have debated how to compensate victims of the abuse. Although the scandal predates the tenure of Ajay Banga, the new World Bank president, it has emerged as one of the first tests of his management.

Mr Banga will be responsible for driving any changes to how the bank invests in private sector projects. He has already faced criticism for appearing dismissive of suggestions that the IFC was interfering in the investigation US lawmakers told him so that the bank’s future financing could depend on its handling of the matter.

The watchdog reportpublished by the The World Bank Compliance Advisor Ombudsmanconcluded that the IFC “did not take into account the potential risks of child sexual abuse posed by the project, nor did it take into account the client’s ability to meet environmental and social requirements relating to the risks and consequences of sexual abuse of children.”

The World Bank had a $13 million stake in Bridge International Academies from 2013 to 2022. She quit the program after complaints of sexual abuse at the schools, which led to an internal investigation into the events and a review of how her investment department oversees such programs. .

The report, citing Bridge International Academies, added that the “IFC failed to regularly monitor or substantively address with its client the project-related risks and consequences of child sexual abuse and gender-based violence.”

It was then recommended that the victims of the abuse receive financial compensation.

However, a management action plan agreed by the IFC Board of Directors did not fully take these recommendations into account. Instead, the plan said it would “directly fund a recovery program for survivors of child sexual abuse” for up to 10 years. The plan would pay an unspecified amount for psychological support and sexual and reproductive health care for adolescents.

The decision on whether to directly compensate victims was the subject of intense internal debate among board members, with some arguing that the bank should not take such direct financial responsibility for what happened during the program.

In an email to World Bank staff sent on Wednesday evening, Mr Banga, who was not at the helm during the period of abuse, acknowledged that mistakes had been made in the handling of the program and the investigation and was remorseful. .

“I am sorry for the trauma these children have experienced, I am committed to supporting the survivors and determined to ensure we do better in the future,” Mr Banga wrote.

Mr Banga acknowledged allegations that IFC officials tried to cover up allegations of misconduct, adding that he would appoint an external investigator to ensure the previous investigation was free of interference.

“We should have responded earlier and more aggressively,” he said. “This is a difficult moment for our institution, but it must be a moment of introspection.”

Human rights groups and civil society organizations have been critical of the proposed action plans, arguing that they do not go far enough to compensate victims.

On Thursday they continued to lament the lack of direct financial support in the action plan, which proposes to pay for it counseling services and healthcare for the victims.

“IFC’s action plan fails to do what it is required to do: provide a solution for Bridge survivors,” the spokesperson said. David Predthe executive director of the human rights group Inclusive Development International.

In recent days, US lawmakers have also urged the Treasury Department, which helped nominate Mr Banga to lead the bank, to push for more to be done and reject the action plan.

“I am concerned that failure to provide immediate and meaningful compensation will harm not only the survivors and their families, but also the reputation of the IFC, which has a vital mission around the world, and that of the United States as its largest shareholder,” Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Wednesday.

The Treasury Department, which had pushed for compensation for the victims, said in a statement Thursday that it accepted the report’s findings. However, it suggested that survivors should be consulted as the IFC determines how best to compensate them.

“We believe that the IFC should keep all resolution options on the table as consultations continue,” The Ministry of Finance reported this in a statement.

The statement added that the department was also concerned about allegations of interference in the investigation and welcomed an independent review of how this was handled.

“We are deeply concerned by the broader liability issues this case raises,” the report said.

A doomsday cult leader, according to Kenyan authorities ordered his congregants to starve themselves was charged Tuesday, along with 29 others, with the murders of 191 children — in a case that has attracted global attention and sparked widespread criticism of religious freedoms in the East African country.

The decision by a court in the coastal town of Malindi was handed down almost a month after a judge ordered that the sect leader, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, and his co-defendants undergo mental health evaluations before any charges are filed.

Only one of the suspects was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. Mr Mackenzie, a minister, and the other accused pleaded not guilty and are expected to appear in court in early March.

Since last April, hundreds of bodies have been dug up from the 800-hectare Shakahola Forest where Mr Mackenzie and his followers lived, many of them buried in shallow graves. Dozens of other followers have been savedand local officials say hundreds are still missing.

This was said by the Minister of the Interior, Kithure Kindiki, last week declared the parsonage churchGood News International Ministries, “an organized criminal group.”

Gangs have taken over entire neighborhoods in Haiti's capital and the number of murders has more than doubled in the past year, but for the organizers of the Port-au-Prince Jazz Festival, the show had to go on.

So while judges an ocean away debated whether to send a contingent of officers to calm Haiti's violence-ridden streets, festival organizers did it by shortening the event's duration from eight days to four, with the acts were moved from a public stage to a restricted hotel. venue and replacing the handful of artists who canceled.

While 11.5 million Haitians struggle to feed their families and ride the bus or go to work because they fear falling victim to gunmen or kidnappers, they too are forging ahead and struggling to make a living. regain a safe sense of routine – whether or not this involves the help of international soldiers.

“We need something normal,” said Miléna Sandler, executive director of the Haiti Jazz Foundation, whose festival takes place this weekend in the capital Port-au-Prince. “We need elections.”

A Kenyan court on Friday blocked a plan to deploy a thousand Kenyan police officers to Haiti, the key element of a multinational force intended to help stabilize a country besieged by killings, kidnappings and gang violence.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has plunged deeper into unrest in the nearly three years since the president's assassination. The terms of all mayors in the country ended almost four years ago, and the prime minister is deeply unpopular, largely because he was appointed, not elected, and has failed to restore order.

Now that the deployment plan, backed by the United Nations and largely funded by the United States, has been suspended, Haitians are left with the question: What now?

The Kenyan government said it would appeal the court ruling, but it was unclear if and when the mission would go ahead. And because no other country, including the United States and Canada, shows any willingness to lead an international military force, there is no clear Plan B.

So for many Haitians, the Kenyan court's decision has left it up to the Caribbean country to come up with its own solutions. If the court ruling suggested anything, experts say, it is that if there is any hope of preventing Haiti from a complete state collapse, the government, police, parliament and other institutions must be rebuilt.

“We no longer want to be a colony of the United States,” said Monique Clesca, a women and democracy activist who served on the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis, a group that tried to come up with a solution. plans to tackle the country's problems. “That doesn't mean we don't want help. It means negotiating with people who are legitimate and have Haiti's best interests at heart.”

Ms. Clesca, a former United Nations official, said she hoped the Kenyan court's decision would prompt the United States, Canada and France — countries long deeply entwined with Haiti — to reconsider their policies.

She criticized the Biden administration and leaders of other countries for supporting Haiti's current Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who took office after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

The committee she worked on came up with sweeping proposals for an interim government that would pave the way for elections, but its work was rejected in favor of backing Henry, who has pushed for international intervention, she said.

In a personal act of defiance and a sign that Haiti must march forward, Ms. Clesca braced herself against the unsafe streets and attended the jazz festival on Thursday.

“It was packed,” she said.

Jean-Junior Joseph, a spokesman for Haiti's prime minister, declined to comment on the Kenyan court's decision other than to say Mr. Henry was “pursuing a diplomatic approach.”

A United Nations spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, emphasized that Secretary-General António Guterres had not selected Kenya to provide police assistance; Kenya, on the other hand, had taken a step forward.

“We thank them for that, while so many countries are not taking a step forward,” Mr Dujarric said. “The need for this Security Council-approved multinational force remains extremely high. We need urgent action, we need urgent funding, and we hope that Member States will continue to do their part, and even more.”

In Washington, John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, reminded reporters that the Kenyan government was appealing the court's ruling.

“We remain very grateful for the Kenyan government's willingness to participate,” he said. “We still think this is very important because the gangs, the thugs and the criminals are still causing a lot of mayhem, mayhem, killings and violence, and the people of Haiti deserve much better than that.”

Although Washington was a strong supporter of the mission in Kenya, it did not offer American personnel.

The U.S. government has pledged as much as $200 million for the multinational mission, money that many Haitians say could instead strengthen Haitian institutions, including the police, which has seen at least 3,000 of its 15,000 officers leave their jobs in the past two years.

The U.S. State Department has already provided about $185 million to the Haitian National Police, which has helped fund equipment, but the force remains ill-prepared to battle the heavily armed gangs.

“Do we have to wait forever for a force to arrive?” said Lionel Lazarre, who heads one of Haiti's two police unions. “No! We already have a police force.”

Eduardo Gamarra, a professor at Florida International University who follows Haiti closely, said that without international intervention, a more strategic policy from the United States and a long-awaited and seemingly impossible strengthening of the Haitian state, a less favorable option was probably the most likely . : the rise of someone like Guy Philippe, a former police commander who led a coup in Haiti in 2004 and has recently tried to mobilize people against the government.

Mr. Philippe arrived in Haiti in November after serving a prison sentence in the United States and being deported. He has known ties to drug traffickers and has joined a paramilitary group in northern Haiti, but it is unclear whether he has the popular support and financial backing to lead the “revolution” he has publicly called for.

“Someone has to take some leadership,” Mr Gamarra said, adding that it would preferably not be Mr Philippe.

Ashley Laraque, leader of the Haitian Military Association, a veterans group, said he believed Kenya would eventually get through it, but that the Kenyan government would likely need more financial incentives.

“I am sure the Kenyan government will send the troops,” Mr Laraque said. “I don't know when, but I'm sure it will happen as soon as this money issue is resolved.”

Joseph Lambert, the former president of the Haitian Senate, said the need was critical.

“Now more than ever, it is time to understand that at all costs we must strengthen our capacity, both at the level of the police and at the level of the Armed Forces of Haiti,” he said, “so that as a sovereign state we can meeting our security needs from our own security forces.”

Although Haiti has a history of disastrous outside interventions, Judes Jonathas, a consultant who works on development projects in the country, said many Haitians were disappointed by the court ruling because their main concern is the safety of such a contingent of police officers . could deliver.

“If you ask the people of Haiti what they need, it is security,” he said. “They don't think about food or school. We don't have any food, for safety reasons. People don't go to school because of safety.”

There are even neighborhoods without cooking gas, because gangs have blocked the main roads. Farmers in rural areas often find it too dangerous to sell their goods in urban markets. Even the national electric company had to move its employees out of its headquarters due to gang activity in the area.

Gangs have such a grip on Port-au-Prince that they sometimes kidnap busloads of passengers and demand ransoms.

The gangs, Mr. Jonathas said, had become emboldened in the face of the government's inability to confront them in any significant way, and the legal roadblock to international engagement had left Haitians to fend for themselves.

“I don't really think international actors really understand what's happening in Haiti,” he said. “We just don't see a future.”

Farnaz Fassihi And André Paultre reporting contributed.

A Kenyan court banned the measure on Friday deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haitiallowing a multinational security force in charge of… stabilizing the chaos-stricken Caribbean island before it even got off the ground.

The force, which is backed by the United Nations and funded by the United States, had been at a standstill since October, when Kenyan opponents of the mission challenged it in court, calling it unconstitutional. The Supreme Court on Friday upheld some of these arguments, casting doubt on the latest international effort to save an impoverished country sliding deeper into violence and instability.

“An order has been issued prohibiting the deployment of Kenyan police officers to Haiti or any other country,” Judge Chacha Mwita said at the end of a judgment that took 40 minutes.

The international force was intended to help break the grip of the armed gangs that control most of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and have made Haiti one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The Haitian government has called for the use of foreign forces to restore order, but the United States and Canada are unwilling to deploy their own.

Kenya agreed to lead the mission last summer, with support from Washington, which pledged $200 million. The intention was for the force to eventually increase to 3,000 security officers.

But only a handful of Caribbean countries have stepped forward to contribute troops, and Friday's court order has cast the mission further into doubt. The Kenyan government is expected to appeal the decision.

André Paulte contributed reporting from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The Kaunda suit has become a favorite attire for African celebrities, elders and politicians in recent years, including one particularly high-profile convert: Kenyan President William Ruto.

A single-breasted safari jacket with short or long sleeves and patch pockets – often worn with matching trousers – was initially made popular in the 1960s by Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s first post-colonial president.

But the Kaunda suit was expelled from the Kenyan parliament this week, along with other forms of traditional African clothing and form-fitting clothing for women. Kenya’s Speaker of Parliament has ruled that such clothing violates the parliamentary dress code – which is largely in line with a modern Western work wardrobe.

A fashion trend like the Kaunda suit “does not correspond to the seriousness of the work of the House and its committees,” Moses Wetangula, the speaker of parliament, said in a speech on Tuesday.

The proper attire for men entering parliamentary chambers, he said, is “a jacket, collar, tie, long-sleeved shirt, long pants, socks and shoes or service uniform.”

The movement caused a scream on social media, with many wondering why proudly African attire would be banned from an African government building in favor of the lawsuits and ties associated with colonial powers.

“Colonialism is really still deeply ingrained in our minds,” says Abdullahi Halakhe, a Kenyan human rights activist. said in a message in Swahili on X, formerly Twitter. He added a link to a story with a photo of the Speaker of Parliament wearing the white wig and cloak that is a holdover from British colonial times.

The flap is supplied as Afrocentric fashion is gaining enormous popularity on the continent and beyond – on catwalks and movie screens and by shoppers attracted to Black culture and style.

The Kenyan speaker also banned hats and caps in parliament and said women should wear business, formal or smart casual clothes with skirts and dresses below the knee. Sleeveless blouses were banned, he added. The rules apply to guests and journalists visiting Parliament, but also to politicians.

“I gave these directions because I was aware that they might cause inconvenience to some of you,” said Mr. Wetangula, 67. “Inconvenience, however, is necessary for the convenience and safety of the members and for the sake of good order .”

One of the most prominent targets of the edict didn’t seem to be listening.

A day after the announcement in Parliament, President Ruto – who publicly wore his first Kaunda suit as president in June this year – met the CEO of NBA Africa while holding a brown Kaunda suit. He attended a government function on Thursday wear a version in sky blue. He has turned heads when he wore a Kaunda suit in pink.

Many modern African leaders have shown that they are aware that voters value politicians who are willing to openly embrace their cultural heritage and traditional dress. Nelson Mandela, as President of South Africabore his signature “Madiba shirts in bold prints, while the former Nigerian president Good luck Jonathan often wore a wide-brimmed fedora hat favored by tribal leaders in his region.

In Rwanda, President Paul Kagame wears clothes made by Rwandan designers Popularize the ‘Made in Rwanda’ campaign.

Mr Kaunda from Zambia, who led his South African nation from 1964 to 1991, adopted the short-sleeved suit as a symbol of African freedom and independence. The style had early roots in Australia and strong similarities to a Chinese silhouette made popular by Chairman Mao.

In banning the Kaunda suits, Mr Wetangula, the Speaker of the Kenyan Parliament, referred to them as ‘Mao Zedong jackets’.

The speaker is a former senator who served as foreign minister a decade ago until he resigned amid corruption allegations. He has been an ally of Mr Ruto, 56, a former deputy president who rose to fame as a shrewd political operator and businessman. He assumed office in September last year, after that winning close elections.

The row over the dress code in Parliament comes amid growing crowds anger and protests over his government’s performancemainly because of the rising costs of food and fuel and rising taxes.

Ruto’s tailor Ashok Sunny said the president’s penchant for Kaunda suits stemmed from a desire to promote local manufacturing and designers.

“He shows that we don’t have to wear suits all day. We can wear the African cut that represents the African look,” said Mr. Sunny said in an interview this year with TV47 in Kenya. He added: “They usually call it the dictator look because most of the old dictators liked the Kaunda suit.”

This is not the first time that sartorial choices have roiled the Kenyan parliament.

Mike Sonko, former senator and governor of Nairobi, was expelled from parliament in 2011 for… wearing sunglasses and stud earrings. Mr Sonko, a flamboyant politician known for his lavish lifestyle, denounced the measure at the time, saying he was dressing like the country’s youth.

The emaciated survivors of a doomsday cult in Kenya, which authorities say ordered its followers to starve themselves, they held hands and leaned on each other as they stumbled into a courtroom on Thursday to be charged with attempted suicide.

The cult’s 65 members refuse to eat their meals at a shelter where they are being cared for. East African nation.

The followers of Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, an evangelical minister who authorities say told members of his church to starve their children and themselves to meet Jesus, appeared at the Shanzu Law Courts in the port city of Mombasa with their few possessions and bags. Some of them, looking thin and weak, fell asleep during the procedure.

Although there was speculation that the survivors would be sent to prison to await trial, the magistrate, Joe Omido, followed recommendations from Kenya’s national human rights watchdog to return them to the shelter.

As of this week, 318 bodies have been exhumed from Shakahola Forest, an 800-acre forest area where the pastor and his congregants lived and where the deceased were buried in shallow graves, at least since 2021. At least 613 people are still missing. county officials said, while 95 others have been rescued so far.

The case, which first came to public attention in April, has shocked Kenya, with human rights groups and observers questioning how police and intelligence agencies have failed to prevent the deaths for so long.

In a country where freedom of religion is enshrined in the constitution, the affair also raises questions about whether authorities should regulate religious institutions. The gruesome deaths of so many people have raised concerns about the need to detect and tackle religious extremism.

Kenya’s President William Ruto, a devout Christian and the country’s first evangelical leader, has appointed a commission to investigate the killings. Kithure Kindiki, the cabinet secretary of the Kenyan interior ministry, said it would be forest turned into a national monument. But rights groups have argued that the government should do more, including compensating the victims and their families.

Mr. Mackenzie was a taxi driver before founding Good News International Church and turned himself into an evangelical minister nearly two decades ago. As his congregation grew, he promoted the Shakahola Forest as a refuge from the approaching end of time.

But instead, the forest has become a crime scene, dominating coverage in major newspapers and television programs in Kenya. While many people died of starvation in the forest, government pathologists have said others also died of suffocation and strangulation.

Mr. Mackenzie has maintained that he has not ordered anyone in his congregation to fast or starve. But prosecutors claim he lured them to starvation, and they’re holding him and more than three dozen other associates on charges including murder and terrorism.

The human rights watchdog, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, had criticized the decision to charge the victims with attempted suicide and called on the government to provide them with psychiatric and mental health care rather than prosecute them.

Attempted suicide is considered an offense under Kenya Penal Code, punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to two years. The crime is a remnant of British colonial laws.

In his statement, Mr Omido said that the victims should be returned to the shelter, given counseling and a psychological assessment and closely monitored. He ordered a new hearing on June 29. One person, who refused to comply with a mental assessment or receive medical care, was sent to prison after the hearing.

Mr. Kindiki, the Minister of the Interior, has said the government had “a watertight case” that would prove that Mr Mackenzie and others had committed “charges of genocide and crimes against humanity”.

Unlike his followers, Mr. Mackenzie eats in prison, authorities say.

Even as he faces serious charges in court, Mr Mackenzie’s defense has been tested.

This week, two of his lawyers, who also represented three dozen other defendants, withdrew from the case citing frustration with the government over a lack of adequate access to their clients or because they had been given enough time to prepare.

A third lawyer said he would stay to defend Mr Mackenzie in court.

“We were simply following the law to make sure his interests as a suspect were followed,” Elisha Komora, one of the lawyers who stepped down from representing Mr. Mackenzie, said in a telephone interview.