Precis

Young widow Mercy lives in a mud hut so tiny that her daughters must sleep at their grandpa’s place. When it rains and her roof leaks, she shelters under a table.

Imagine then, Mercy bursting into joyful song and dance when it rains money – enough money to build a modest house with enough space for her and her girls to sleep under the one roof.

I feel like I’m sitting next to God - it’s like a dream. Now we will all eat, sleep and wake up as a family – Mercy Origa

Mercy is part of a vast experiment in rural Kenya that questions the idea that when you give a poor person cash, chances are that it will be blown on grog or smokes or something equally useless. It’s a view that underpins the way many of us give; we’d rather see our donations used to dispense rice or dig wells and not dolloped out as cold hard cash to be spent on whatever a recipient wants.

But some aid groups worry that much of the $100 billion-plus spent annually on foreign aid ends up in a sinkhole of bureaucracy or corruption, and does too little to tackle poverty. So they have begun using cash transfers.

US-based GiveDirectly is taking this to a whole new level – directly channelling cash donations to 26,000 impoverished people in Kenya via mobile phone transfers. It’s a 12-year experiment in which some will get monthly payments and others a lump sum. No middlemen involved.

Only I know what I really need and what will benefit me in the future. Not everybody wants a goat. – William Owegi, who used some of a $US1000 transfer to buy musical instruments and set up a band that is now earning money at gigs.

Results are still to come, but on early evidence GiveDirectly claims recipients are spending cash wisely on life-improving goods or investments. They have more motivation to work, the group says, with less stress and domestic violence.

While cash has been catching on, it’s still a small part of the picture. But if this experiment succeeds, the trend could gather pace, challenging conventional aid programs that spend money distributing goods and services. GiveDirectly says 91 per cent of donations it receives go straight to the poor.

This is huge, this is really big and it’s very different from what you’ve known previously – Caroline Teti, Kenya representative, GiveDirectly

What GiveDirectly is doing in poor Kenyan villages may hold mind-bending potential for the wealthy West. In some villages, everyone is getting the same amount of cash – regardless of what they already earn. It’s called Universal Basic Income, an idea that some First World reformers and Silicon Valley seers believe is key to a future where robots have supplanted workers.

For Mercy though, the future is all about having her family back together, under a roof that doesn’t leak.

Sunrise

Music

00:00

Drone shots. Car on road. Super:
WESTERN KENYA

00:06

Matt in car. Super:
Reporter: MATT BROWN

00:19

Title:
NOT EVERYBODY WANTS A GOAT

00:24

Kenya. Lake shore landscapes

MATT BROWN, REPORTER: An historic aid experiment is about to be rolled out in Western Kenya. It’s radical, it challenges a lot of common perceptions about charity, and it’s based in rural villages like this one on the shores of Lake Victoria. 

00:30

Village GVs

Music

00:47

Matt and Caroline walking through cornfield

CAROLINE TETI, GiveDirectly: This is huge. This is really big and it’s very different from what you know previously. 

MATT BROWN: Carolyn Teti is working with a group that is going to test whether there’s a better way to use the billions spent on foreign aid each year.

00:53

CAROLINE TETI: The interventions that we are giving here are trying to ask the hard questions about aid effectiveness.

01:07

MATT BROWN: To do that, they’ll be handing out cold hard cash – and what the villagers do with it, will be up to them.

01:13

CAROLINE TETI: For many years, aid has been with us and there has been very little change that we see in the lives of poor people.

01:21

Caroline and Matt greet Mercy

CAROLINE TETI:  Hello, Mercy.

MATT BROWN: Hi, Mercy, how are you? 

MERCY: I’m fine.

MATT BROWN: This quiet cash revolution is about to change Mercy Origa’s life forever.

01:27

Mercy and her girls wash

01:38

MERCY ORIGA: Don’t pour water on her head, just wash her face.

01:44

MATT BROWN: Mercy lives with her four daughters. It’s a tight-knit little family and the girls are her pride and joy.

01:49

MERCY ORIGA: What keeps me going is the love for my children and the hope for a better future.

02:00

Mercy

They see how their mother struggles, they’re, watching, listening – and they put that in their minds.

02:08

Mercy cooking

CAROLINE TETI: I’m so impressed by Mercy. She has such a strong spirit. A young woman and she says there are crocodiles and hippos that come out of the lake. Her home is not fenced and she lives there, like

02:19

Caroline Teti

she sleeps there every single night.

02:35

Mercy sitting with her children

MATT BROWN: Mercy has been raising the kids on her own since her husband died a few years ago. 

02:38

MERCY ORIGA: I became the mum, the dad. I became everything.

02:47

Night. Inside home. Children do homework

I pray God helps them through school and that they get good jobs.

02:59

Family eat dinner

My biggest dream is to build a house because this one is very small.

03:11

Mercy walks the children in the dark to father in law’s house for bed

Music

03:18

MATT BROWN: Their one room house is so small, every night she must walk her three eldest daughters to her father-in-law’s house to sleep.

03:21

MERCY ORIGA: We sleep separately and this really pains me.

03:32

MATT BROWN: Tomorrow, Mercy will find out whether her dream of a bigger house will become a reality.

03:49

MERCY ORIGA: My children will be very happy because we will eat, tell stories, sleep and wake up together.

03:57

My children will leave the house as a family to go to school.

04:05

Sunrise

MATT BROWN: Her day starts early,

04:12

Mercy collects fish from net. Caroline and Matt assist

drying fish to sell at the local market. This is the daily routine, but today is no ordinary day. 

MATT BROWN: It tastes like a dried fish! 

MATT BROWN: This afternoon, Caroline’s aid group, GiveDirectly,

04:17

is planning to give Mercy a large amount of cash. 

MATT BROWN: We don’t want to leave any behind.

CAROLINE TETI: I know! This is money!

04:38

MATT BROWN: Mercy sells her fish at a little shop a short walk away.

04:44

Mercy walking to market with Matt and Caroline

Giving cash straight to Africa’s poor is part of a growing but little noticed shift in the aid world, away from building toilets and handing out blankets, food, or livestock.

04:49

Caroline

CAROLINE TETI: What I hear now is people making the decision about the change they want to their lives. 

05:02

Walking to market

MATT BROWN: What is extraordinary is that this cash will come with no strings attached. It doesn’t have to be spent on food or education – it can be spent on whatever she likes.

05:06

CAROLINE TETI: So I’m looking forward to see basically how she is going to feel, like receiving this money for the first time. This pretty much is going to be the largest amount of money that she’s received all her life.

05:19

Mercy greets women at market stall

MATT BROWN: Most of the women at the market stall have also been signed up to the GiveDirectly program. But for Mercy, this is all new and the anticipation is building. The cash transfer will come by mobile phone and is scheduled for 5 p.m.

05:32

MERCY ORIGA: It’s 4.57.

05:52

Matt with Caroline

MATT BROWN: Looks like they’re going to get a message in a few minutes.

CAROLINE TETI: We’re waiting and hoping that we can see what happens when they get the money.

05:55

Mercy sits with women

OLD LADY: Have you received it yet? Women are jumping for joy – they received the money.

MERCY ORIGA: Are you speaking the truth?

06:00

Mercy looking at phone

OLD LADY: It’s true, they received it by phone.

06:12

MATT BROWN: Mercy can’t really believe anyone is giving her this much money.

06:19

Women dance around Mercy

MERCY ORIGA: It feels like a vivid dream, but it is true. 

06:27

Mercy, Caroline and Matt around phone. Mercy dances with the women

MATT BROWN: The text message contains a code she can use at a local store to withdraw cash – the equivalent of $US400, more than a year’s income.

06:39

Mercy

MERCY ORIGA: I feel very happy, even though I have not yet withdrawn the money. It makes me feel closer to God.

07-01

MATT BROWN: Within the next few weeks, she’ll receive a total of $US1,000. Mercy will finally be able to build a house big enough for her and all her girls to live under the one roof. 

07:13

Village GVs

Music

07:38

MATT BROWN: In the last six years, GiveDirectly has given $US100 million in cash to people living in extreme poverty, and it’s proving to have a lasting effect.

CAROLINE TETI, GiveDirectly: When we tell people that we are going to give them money, they start doubting us.

07:42

Caroline. Super:
CAROLINE TETI
Give Directly

They’re like, give us money, not water, not a school? You mean money? To me? Is that true? And we say, yes, it’s true. 

07:58

Matt and Caroline walk to shed

MATT BROWN: I can hear some…

CAROLINE TETI: You can hear some music?

MATT BROWN: Yeah. 

MATT BROWN: Three years ago, William Owegi

08:08

William and band rehearsing in shed

received $US1,000. He used nearly half the money to realise a long-held ambition. William bought instruments and started this band. 

08:13

WILLIAM OWEGI, MUSICIAN: People have different needs – not everybody wants a goat, not everybody wants a house.

08:33

William

I’m the only one who knows what I really need and what will benefit me in the future.

08:41

Band walk out with instruments and load into ute

MATT BROWN: They head out to a gig at the local pub. The work can be patchy, but it brings in a modest income.

08:55

WILLIAM OWEGI: I never used to have money to buy clothes – but through this band I am now able to cater for my needs and family in terms of food, clothing and other essentials.

09:06

BAND MEMBER: The music system!

MATT BROWN: I’m the roadie! 

09:23

Band plays in pub

Music

09:26

Matt and Caroline watch band at pub

MATT BROWN: So when you were giving this money out, did you imagine this is what would become of it?

CAROLINE TETI: We didn’t imagine. Every time we visit our recipients, it’s a surprise. And as you can see, this surprises us, but it’s a success. It’s really groovy.

MATT BROWN: Groovy.

09:33

Band plays in pub/Matt and Caroline dance

Music

09:47

WILLIAM OWEGI: Our dream is to own a music studio. If we own a studio, we’ll be able to record our songs and record for other bands and musicians, which will boost our income.

09:53

MATT BROWN: Few would argue with unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit and giving cash to the needy is becoming more popular with big aid groups as well as the Kenyan Government. But GiveDirectly is about to do something a lot more controversial. They are going to give money to everyone, not just the poor, and see what happens.

10:14

Caroline and Mitch walk in village

CAROLINE TETI: So Eric had a fishing business and the business collapsed.

MATT BROWN: Australian Mitch Riley left his corporate law career in New York to come work in the Kenyan bush alongside Caroline Teti.

MITCH RILEY, GiveDirectly: For the first time in 2006, the international community spent more on aid

10:40

Mitch

than it would actually take to eliminate extreme poverty in the world. So we currently spend $US140 billion on aid and the Brookings Institute has said it would only cost $80 billion to close the poverty gap. And so then we have to ask ourselves, why hasn’t that happened? And in large part, it’s because we’re not allocating

10:58

Mitch and Caroline walk

the aid money that we have efficiently.

MATT BROWN: They’re experimenting with a new idea known as universal basic income. 

CAROLINE TETI: The people who are interested understand basically how has this program changed...

11:16

Caroline greets village woman

MATT BROWN: It’s almost the opposite of the once in a lifetime lump sum payment, like the one Mercy just received. Instead, it gives people small amounts of cash on a regular basis – no matter what their need.

MITCH RILEY: The idea behind the universal basic income is we want to give

11:28

Mitch and Caroline with villagers in house

people a safety net. And so we want to guarantee that whatever

11:45

Mitch

happens in their lives, they're going to be able to rely on this payment to get by. 

11:48

Mitch and Caroline with villagers in house

CAROLINE TETI: Has your money come in? 

WOMAN: Yes. 

11:53

MATT BROWN: GiveDirectly is rolling out a twelve-year long trial, paying entire villages a guaranteed monthly income.

MITCH RILEY: What people do with that money is what we want to find out in this experiment. Do they

11:55

Mitch. Super:
MITCH RILEY
GiveDirectly

open more businesses or expand existing businesses? So do they take risks because they know if they fail, they've got a safety net? Do they stay in school longer because they can afford to? They don't have that same income pressure to drop out. Do health services and education services improve because people have more money to pay for those services?

12:08

Caroline holding baby

CAROLINE TETI: A baby named after Caroline Teti! What is this story? What is this?

MITCH RILEY: Is it really?

CAROLINE TETI: It’s true!

MATT BROWN: Unlike the dole or other forms

12:26

of welfare, universal income gives money to everyone, not just the unemployed or the needy. And it’s an idea that’s starting to be discussed seriously in the developed world as well.

12:35

MITCH RILEY: That's because in western countries, we're facing increased automation and job losses and

12:47

Mitch

looking down the barrel of that happening more in the future. Universal basic income could provide a way of easing the blow of that automation, by giving people a minimum safety net which could allow them to contribute to societies in ways that are valuable, but are not necessarily rewarded financially. 

12:53

Drone shot over village

Music

13:12

MATT BROWN: But here in Kenya, they’re already trying it, and it’s about to expand as part of a giant experiment involving 26,000 people. 

13:17

Matt and Caroline walk, greet Dennis

CAROLINE TETI: This must be his family. Dennis? 

MATT BROWN: Dennis Anam’s village is a pilot case for the project. He and every adult here have been receiving small cash payments for the last eight months.

13:26

Joseph and brother/Matt and Caroline greet children

His 11 year-old son, Joseph, has a chronic brain condition and suffers from seizures.

CAROLINE TETI: Mila, Gloria, Tina. 

13:42

Dennis

DENNIS ANAM: My son convulses, and when he convulses he loses consciousness. It happens in the morning and evening.

13:52

Dennis collecting wood and making charcoal

MATT BROWN: Even though he has been getting the cash payments, he hasn’t given up his main business – burning wood to make charcoal. And the guaranteed basic income has allowed him to take out health insurance. Before, he couldn’t risk it because he was never sure he’d be able to pay the monthly premiums.

14:00

Joseph

DENNIS ANAM: My son’s life is very important to me. He is my blessing.

14:23

Dennis

As a parent I see his life changing because he is assured of getting treatment in a hospital. When he goes to the hospital, his bills are taken care of by insurance.

14:31

Dennis and wife do budget

MATT BROWN: When Denis and his wife do the family budget, there’s new confidence the basics will be looked after.

14:44

Dennis rides bike

The experiment involves 200 villages, as well as a control group that won’t get any cash at all. It’s being evaluated with the help of a team at Princeton University and MIT. It’s an attempt to apply more scientific rigour to giving aid. 

MATT BROWN: What's the evidence actually that it's not being done efficiently? I mean, what's the proof that it really does need to change?

MITCH RILEY: I think I'd put the shoe on the other foot

14:53

Mitch

and say that organisations should have to prove that their interventions are effective in the same way that before we let drug companies put drugs on the market, they have to demonstrate the

15:25

Dennis rides up to store

effectiveness of those products. And for a lot of interventions in the development space, the evidence just isn't there.

15:32

Dennis looking at phone

MATT BROWN: It’s all been made possible by the rise of the mobile phone. Text tokens can now be cashed in at the tinniest kiosk in the Kenyan bush. The guaranteed income has started changing the village economy.

15:39

Dennis buys maize

DENNIS ANAM: There is a lot of change. I have bought goats, and sand which I am going to use to improve my house.

15:56

Dennis has maize milled

My neighbours are also planning to improve their houses. Some have now formed groups and pooled their savings to buy domestic animals.

16:12

MATT BROWN: For businesses selling the basics, customers are now more regular and reliable. They are promising results so far, but many are keen to see how the study progresses and what they discover over the long term. 

16:34

Dennis’s children

16:48

Matt with Dennis and family

MATT BROWN: What will you do about his health when the money runs out in 12 years?

16:53

Family with eucalyptus seedlings

DENNIS ANAM: I have planted a eucalyptus forest. And I am hoping that after 12 years I’ll have 1000 eucalyptus trees. These trees are an investment for my children.

17:00

Caroline and Matt walking on busy street

MATT BROWN: That’s really important, isn’t it?

CAROLINE TETI: It is, very.

MATT BROWN: I mean, if you are pumping cash in, it’s no good if the prices all go up?

CAROLINE TETI: It’s very, very important. It’s very important. 

MATT BROWN: The logistics of the universal income trial are enormous.

17:43

Vegetable market. Caroline and Matt walk

They’re monitoring prices in the market to see if the cash causes inflation. They have undercover staff to detect whether people are subjected to corruption or extortion and,

17:56

Matt and Caroline into cafe

crucially, they’re looking at what happens to the work ethic.

CAROLINE TETI: We are looking to answer hard questions

18:06

that are going on in the global space around whether giving poor people money will encourage laziness so that people don’t go to work.

18:12

MATT BROWN: What are the key downsides that you are looking for? The key negative things that might happen? 

18:20

CAROLINE TETI: We have evidence that we have run, through the lump sum programs that we are doing, and one big outcome of that study that was also done here in Kenya, is that if you give poor people money, they don’t spend it on alcohol or cigarettes; they don’t waste it. They actually have true needs. And that question of whether poor people spend money on alcohol or cigarettes is an assumption that poor people do not know what money is supposed to be used for.

18:26

Families that received cash from GiveDirectly had a very significant reduction in domestic violence. People who received the lump sum transfers had lower stress levels. And those are really, really important indicators, especially for poor families. If you are less stressed, you are more motivated to work.

18:52

Driving to Caroline’s home region

Music

19:10

MATT BROWN: Caroline Teti comes from this region and knows only too well what its people are up against.

19:20

Caroline

CAROLINE TETI: My primary school was mud walled. You couldn’t make the difference between a window and the door because they were the same sizes. The wall kept falling every time.

19:29

I wore shoe for the first time when I was going to high school. It’s been a road, it’s been a rough road to be where we are right now. Yes.

19-36

Caroline and Matt in van

MATT BROWN: Caroline says the old ways of distributing aid – food handouts and housing projects – are often inefficient because they don’t give individuals a choice.

CAROLINE TETI: I started working in development aid

19:46

Caroline

and now many years, 15 years and still counting, and we’re still talking about the same problems that we talked about when I started working – people going without food, children not able to go to school. And we are putting in billions of dollars to change that life. So the big question today is: if aid is supposed to reverse poverty, what has been happening? Where is the missing link?

19:59

Mockumentary video excerpt. ‘The Samaritans’

MATT BROWN: That missing link has become the subject of Kenya’s first mockumentary about the aid industry.

20:23

MOCKUMENTARY CHARACTER: Hi. I’m Scott Bartly and I’m an alcoholic. Ooh! Wrong meeting!

SALIM KESHAVJEE, TELEVISION DIRECTOR: Initially, I think the idea came up from my business partner, Houssein. And he

20:31

Salim

came up with something on the back of a napkin, and he says ‘NGO, comedy, dysfunctional’. 

20:42

Mockumentary video excerpt. ‘The Samaritans’

MOCKUMENTARY CHARACTER: It was supposed to say ‘Save the Elephants’!

20:46

Salim

SALIM KESHAVJEE: It’s basically these characters who have the best of intentions, “We want to save Africa”, you know? 

20:50

Mockumentary video excerpt. ‘The Samaritans’

MOCKUMENTARY FEMALE CHARACTER: We mustn’t lose sight of what is important here. 

MOCKUMENTARY MALE CHARACTER: Saving Africa?

20:56

Salim

SALIM KESHAVJEE: And then they are working for a bureaucracy that has a big intention, but maybe they haven’t asked fundamental questions, like what do you want, you know?

21:01

Mockumentary video excerpt. ‘The Samaritans’

MOCKUMENTARY CHARACTER: Why? Why? 

21:09

MATT BROWN: It hit a nerve, and not just here in Kenya.

21:12

MOCKUMENTARY CHARACTER: I’m here to work with Aid for Aid Kenya in this, a brand new era, an era of accountability, of globalisation, of transparency.

SALIM KESHAVJEE: We have a portal on our website. We’ve asked people, if you have an

21:15

Salim

interesting story about NGOs, please submit it. So to tell you the truth, we got bombarded with thousands of stories.

21:28

Video excerpt

They were so absurd, that even our fictional comedic environment could not handle it!

MATT BROWN: Ironically, they got some of their initial funding from an NGO.

SALIM KESHAVJEE: We asked this NGO, why are you funding us? We’re making fun of you!

21:36

Salim

And they said, well we need more answerability and accountability within the industry, so we want to enhance that. And we said, okay, fine. 

21:49

Video except

MOCKUMENTARY CHARACTER: I’ve worked for my mother’s NGO since I was six years old, where I gave my first speech at the Plaza. After that, I did a six month internship in Casablanca, where I wrote my masters’ thesis, entitled ‘Kenya, the state of the political economy of industrialisation, ICT infiltration and capacity building’. 

21:56

MATT BROWN: Salim’s big surprise came when a United Nations official invited them to screen it at the UN HQ in Nairobi.

SALIM KESHAVJEE: It was a full house and we got a standing ovation at the end because they all felt that this is so true, you know? There are some bureaucracies that even people within the organisation are like, yes, we could do away with this.

22:18

Salim

When you want to change the world, you have to change the way people see themselves. And when you guise truth in humour, it’s sort of an acceptable way to take in and to imbibe that truth. 

22:39

Drone shot. Kibera slum

Music

22:51

Kibera GVs

MATT BROWN: In the real world, the limitations of aid can be seen nowhere more clearly than on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, in a slum called Kibera. Here NGO has another meaning.

22:58

Leo

LEO ODHIAMBO, SLUM TOUR OPERATOR: The main name that the NGOs are called in the area is number one, Nothing is Going On or… Not Good Organisers.

23:20

Leo leading slum tour

MATT BROWN: Kibera resident Leo Odhiambo runs a slum tour for curious visitors. This ramshackle, tightly-packed place of open sewers and grinding poverty has been the site for hundreds of aid groups over the past few decades. Yet very little seems to change.

23:27

Leo

LEO ODHIAMBO: There is a very big perception that they're wasting money on things that won't help.

23:51

Slum tour

MATT BROWN: While Leo is deeply cynical about aid, he acknowledges some groups do do important work here – work the government should be doing – in healthcare and education. They even helped build this sewage recycling centre.

23:56

LEO ODHIAMBO: So, any questions?

24:11

TOURIST: Do people generally have toilets in their homes or some form of …?

24:13

LEO ODHIAMBO: We used to have this thing called ‘flying toilets’. Just go to the toilet in a paper bag, you poop in it, and just throw it outside. Yeah, it looked very gross. So that’s why they came up with the idea. And the government also needs to try harder.

24:19

Leo

The government is accountable to each and every citizen, no matter the background, no matter where he or she comes from.

24:37

Matt walks with Leo

MATT BROWN: Do you think there will be a time when there is no slum here?

LEO ODHIAMBO: No, the slum is here to stay, ‘cause you know, the government is the government. It’s a give and take thing – the more you give, the more they take.

24:45

Nairobi street GVs

Music

24:59

MATT BROWN: That’s a hot button issue right now, because Kenya is in the middle of an election campaign.

25:03

Boniface campaigning montage

Music

25:08

MATT BROWN:  Boniface Mwangi is an upstart political candidate running on the slogan “Power to the people”. 

25:13

Boniface

BONIFACE MWANGI, POLITICAL CAMPAIGNER: I don't think aid, I don't think aid is going to help those poor people. I don't think aid is what they need. What they need is infrastructure.

25:20

Boniface campaigning

MATT BROWN: Every day on the campaign trail where politicians traditionally buy their votes, the culture of power and patronage is plain to see.

25:28

VOTER 1: How will I benefit from voting for you?

BONIFACE MWANGI: You’ll benefit with employment.

25:38

MAN IN STREET: I am hungry, what will I do?

BONIFACE MWANGI : I don’t give out money.

BONIFACE MWANGI: I think that Kenya's biggest problem is corruption,

25:44

Boniface

corruption, corruption, corruption, corruption. That's it. Nothing else. If you deal with corruption, everything else will fall into place. 

25:51

Boniface campaigning

MATT BROWN: Boniface Mwangi is a former photographer turned activist, famous for his campaigns against government excess.

26:00

VOTER 2: So Mwangi wants to become an MP? 

BONIFACE MWANGI: Yes, he wants to be a MP.

26:07

BONIFACE MWANGI: (TO MEN) I have a record of fighting for the rights of the oppressed. So I will do my job.

26:11

MATT BROWN: He argues foreign aid takes the pressure off Kenya’s politicians, who are among the highest paid in the world.

26:17

Boniface

BONIFACE MWANGI: When the government spends its biggest budget in paying salaries and buying big cars and buying many things that are not necessary, there’s donor aid coming in to cover the necessary things. So that means that your average poor citizen, does not demand better from the government because you know what..? the government doesn't deliver, so we just wait for the white guys to come and deliver aid or come and give us food.

26:24

Boniface campaigning

MATT BROWN: In the past 40 years, Kenya has received more than $US60 billion in aid, much of it in the form of soft loans, not food or housing.

26:48

Boniface on street with Matt

BONIFACE MWANGI: It’s very important that you actually, as a citizen you actually ask your government, where do your taxes go? But Kenyans don’t do that. So donor money actually plays a role of pacifying society. You pacify the community.

26:58

Boniface campaigning

MATT BROWN: In down-at-heels suburbs like these, people see little of the education programs and economic reforms spruiked by their leaders. 

27:11

Boniface

MATT BROWN: But there is foreign aid trying to build the capacity of the government, isn’t there?

BONIFACE MWANGI: The government has capacity.

27:21

A government that actually knows how to steal millions of dollars is a government that has capacity.

27:26

Kenya is 54 years old – we've been around for about 54 years – so we can't be a 54 year old baby. We need partners, we need to do business – and that can only happen when you fight corruption. So I think we should be going now from aid dependency to now saying how do you build business alliances. How do you work with other countries who’ll get a market for our goods. But that cannot happen with corruption. So I think we need to back. The bottom line for Kenya and for Kenya to move forward, we must fight the corruption monster.

27:31

Mercy’s village on shores of Lake Victoria

Music

27:59

MATT BROWN: Those are big fights to be had on the national and international stage.

28:04

In the Kenyan bush, the radical experiment – bypassing politicians and middlemen and giving cash to people like Mercy – is quietly gaining ground.

28:12

MERCY ORIGA: The Kenyan Government should start by helping its people. But when it’s not enough, then aid from outside can help to complement it.

28:25

CAROLINE TETI: This is going to give Mercy respect. People will start talking to her differently and will start talking to her children differently. People who thought she was hopeless will see that there’s hope in her.

28:49

Mercy

MERCY ORIGA: If someone wants to help, you have to help yourself first.

29:03

Aerial. Mercy and villagers by lake

Music

29:13

Credits start over

Reporter - Matt Brown

Camera - Catherine Scott

Drone Operator - Christian Omondi Onyando
Field Producers - Lillian Leposo, Catherine Scott

Post Producers - Poppy Stockell, Catherine Scott  
Research - Suzanne Smith
Editors - Stuart Miller, Joshua Webber

Executive Producer – Marianne Leitch

abc.net.au/foreign

© 2017

29:22

Outpoint after credits

29:48