President Kibaki is hoping for renewed lending within weeks

The visits from International Monetary Fund managing director Horst Koehler on 7 July and World Bank president James Wolfensohn later in July should presage the resumption of international lending to Kenya by mid-month.

The IMF chief is going to Nairobi on his way to the African Union summit in Maputo, Mozambique on 10-11 July.

Both the IMF and the World Bank froze their ties with Kenya in late 2000, after the previous government of then-President Daniel arap Moi's Kanu party ditched efforts to fight corruption.

But in the wake of the landslide election victory of the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) in December, ending 39 years of Kanu rule and two decades under Mr Moi, the new government has revived clean-up efforts.

Parliament passed key new laws in April, and one of President Mwai Kibaki's first actions upon taking office in early January was to appoint John Githongo, an indefatigable anti-corruption campaigner, as the senior civil servant in charge of the fight against dirty dealings.

Work in progress

Before the IMF resumes lending - a prerequisite, in practical terms, for Kenya to get money from anyone else - it also has to satisfy the international bodies that its anti-poverty strategies are up to speed.

The latest budget, unveiled on 12 June, included sizeable spending on fighting poverty, including big rises for education and health to turn around what Finance Minister David Mwiraria dubbed "four decades of misrule".

The strategy promised 500,000 new jobs a year and increased inward investment - dependent, according to the government, on more transparent public spending and improved security.

The spending plans were written to exclude new IMF money, just in case the government's hopes prove unfounded.

Kenya's key tourist trade has been in trouble recently because of security concerns, the economic damage from which was highlighted in late June by the President of neighbouring Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa.