Americas
Trump Administration Laying Off 2,000 USAID Workers
All direct hire personnel to be placed on administrative leave, according to email
The administration of US President Donald Trump said Sunday that it is eliminating 2,000 positions at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and placing nearly all other staffers on administrative leave.
According to multiple media sources, an email has been sent to USAID employees stating that “as of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally.”
The agency also intends to launch a program to pay for their return home if the employees desire to.
Subsequent emails are expected to reveal more details, as stated in the email received by numerous USAID employees, on how to proceed in the coming weeks.
The Trump administration, following suggestions from US tech billionaire Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), initiated the shutdown of USAID’s operations domestically and internationally.
The move has led to widespread disruptions in global aid programs, affecting non-governmental organizations and media organizations that rely on the agency’s funding.
USAID was established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Later, Congress established USAID as an independent agency, meaning that an act of Congress would be required to eliminate it.
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
High Court to Set the Record Straight in Long-Running Bia Tosha Petition
Kenya’s betting tax reform and why it matters
KETRACO CEO Advert Marred By Controversies As Fears Grow That Kipkemoi Kibias Is A Predetermined Candidate
I Will Bribe Every Judge in Town- MP Jack Wamboka
KNH ON THE BRINK: How Corruption, Revenue Plunder and State Neglect Are Destroying Kenya’s Flagship Hospital
Receivers In TransCentury Sh6B KRA Tax Arrears Are Biased And Must Be Removed, COFEK Claims
The Man Behind the Badge: How Prof. Erastus Kanga Turned Kenya’s Premier Wildlife Agency into a Theatre of Corruption, Fear and Impunity
City Lawyer Conrad Maloba Arrested Over Fake Ambulance Fraud
THE FIXER IN THE FILE ROOM: How Parliamentary Health Committee Clerk Adan Gindicha Cleared Mediheal Hospital of Organ Harvesting Claims Despite Mounting Evidence
Nairobi Freezes Binance Accounts in Sweeping Anti-Fraud Crackdown as Global Scandal Record Haunts World’s Largest Crypto Exchange
Forged Legacy: How Kaplan and Stratton’s Peter Gachuhi Is Accused of Faking a Top AG’s Will as State Claims Damning Evidence
The Lawyer at the Centre of Kenya’s State Machine: Eric Gumbo, the AG’s Bypassed Office, and the Half-Billion-Shilling Question
Inside Details Of Sh78 Billion Fraud in KPC’s Mombasa-Nairobi Line 5 Pipeline Project That Has Continued To Bleed The Country
Sold And Abandoned: How Diageo and Asahi Are Locking Kenya’s EABL Minority Shareholders Out Of East Africa’s Biggest Corporate Heist
Poison at the Pump: How Kenya’s Fuel Marking System May Be Exposing Millions to Cancer-Causing Chemicals
How Firm Linked To Mombasa Tycoon Jaffer Was Allowed To Import Fuel At Bloated Price And Set To Make Billions In Profits From Iranian War Crisis In Kenya
THE ZAKHEM-ECOBANK MACHINE: How Kenya’s Courts Were Weaponised to Drain a State Corporation of Over KES 78 Billion
The Teflon Company: How Gulf Energy’s Insiders Built Billions on Kenya’s Fuel, and Walked Away Clean
Kenyan Motorists Stare At Possible Engine Damage And Heavy Losses As Report Confirms Substandard Fuel In Circulation
Mombasa Lawyer Exposed In Sh600 Million Alleged Double-Dealing Diani Property Transaction
-
Business1 week agoNairobi Freezes Binance Accounts in Sweeping Anti-Fraud Crackdown as Global Scandal Record Haunts World’s Largest Crypto Exchange
-
Business2 weeks agoTHE FUEL CABAL: How Mohamed Jaffer, a KPC Insider, and a Ministry Official Are Alleged to Have Manufactured Kenya’s Worst Petroleum Crisis in Three Years, While Kenyans Burned
-
Investigations1 week agoEXCLUSIVE: Odibets Bought Stolen Data From Millions Of Kenyans
-
Investigations7 days agoTHE FIXER IN THE FILE ROOM: How Parliamentary Health Committee Clerk Adan Gindicha Cleared Mediheal Hospital of Organ Harvesting Claims Despite Mounting Evidence
-
Investigations1 week agoTHE BRAZEN RETURN: Triton Thief Yagnesh Devani, Who Pillaged Kenya of Sh7.6 Billion and Fled, Now Asks the Same Courts He Escaped to Restore His Stolen Wealth
-
Investigations6 days agoThe Man Behind the Badge: How Prof. Erastus Kanga Turned Kenya’s Premier Wildlife Agency into a Theatre of Corruption, Fear and Impunity
-
Business2 weeks agoSugar Empire in the Dock: How Kibos’s Mombasa Refinery Landed 1,481 Phantom Tonnes at the Port — and Why Nine Government Agencies Are Now Watching Its Every Move
-
Investigations6 days agoKNH ON THE BRINK: How Corruption, Revenue Plunder and State Neglect Are Destroying Kenya’s Flagship Hospital