...Jenkins is the wife of Robert Jenkins, director of the USAID Office of Transition Initiatives within the agency's Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance...
Robert Jenkins started with OTI more than a decade ago and became Deputy Director in 2004. It's not like President Obama swooped in and appointed him.
George W. Bush quadrupled our aid to Africa. Money has been going to Malawi from the US for 50 years. The aid to Malawi via USAID isn't an initiative of President Obama--the news here is that they gave a sole-source allocation to bridge aid for ongoing education.
One reason given for such aid is that the "security of the American people depends on global stability and prosperity." If we disagree with that premise, then let's try to change the aid, but the headline and lede are rather misleading (no pun intended).
If we are going to be strictly literal about it, the headline is, as far as it goes accurate, Jenkins’ wife is running the program, and Congress agreed with Bush’s requests for more aid to Africa, most of which was for AIDS relief. Bush couldn’t give away anything until Congress provided the money. Fact is, I trust Bush’s judgment more than I trust Obama’s and certainly more than I trust Congress’. But I disagree with the premise entirely. That is shakedown logic.