June 4th, 2009
By Alex Kamau Kamotho.
How unfortunate that it has taken the financial turmoil ravaging the US and the UK and much of the western world for Kenyan ministers and mandarins to appreciate the important role the Diaspora play in the Kenyan economy, and what more they could do were their potential utilised in a systematic manner. That this group of people remit nearly 50 billion shillings annually greatly underscores their role.
There is no justification as to why Kenya has yet to formulate a coherent policy to utilise the immense financial resources of Kenyans abroad almost fifty years after they started leaving for studies, work or settlement abroad.
But who are the Diaspora? Kenyans abroad are largely in five categories: Students, Professionals, those permanently settled through marriage or family, those in mid or lower jobs and the undocumented immigrants.
Irrespective of category, most Diaspora retain an irrevocable bond with Kenya and hope to return and lead a better life informed by greater financial resources and make a contribution to Kenya’s development. They continue to liberate their families and friends through financial support.
One is impressed by their sheer and singular determination wherever they are abroad and what they achieve relative to how much they earn- and the cost of living. The lessons they learnt in Kenya – of thrift, austerity and sacrifice help them save millions through blood and sweat.
I live and work in the UK and am humbled that the more than 150,000 Kenyans living here have been classed as one of the most economically active, productive and successful of all immigrant communities to the UK.
This is no mean feat in a country with immigrants from every country on earth and importantly because race and skin colour remain important factors in determining access to economic opportunities and progress.
What then can the Kenyan government and politicians do to help?
First there need to be a structured way of tapping the economic potential of this group. The Kenyan government could if it were more organised borrow money from the Diaspora instead of genuflecting every time at hostile donors. What about a Diaspora bond or treasury bills issued say in London, Montreal, Canberra or Washington and subscribed for in pounds or dollars-directly remitted to Kenya via our foreign missions?
That Kenyan companies have in the past camped for weeks in major US and UK cities offering their products to the Diaspora shows this potential. The government should offer alternative investment opportunities and dissuade most Diasporas from investing primarily in real estates as this has, as evidence now suggest resulted in an over priced real asset bubble in the major Kenyan towns which may explode with serious consequences to ordinary Kenyans at home.
Secondly the Kenyan government should urgently pass legislation to legalise dual citizenship. It is painful to renounce Kenyan citizenship and most do so as a last resort. American or British citizenship may mean greater access to economic opportunity but does not make one less Kenyan! I belief once Kenyan always Kenyan irrespective of what Kenyan politicians would rather we think of ourselves.
The 150 world countries among them the richest and most progressive that allow dual citizenship appreciate the great benefits associated with efficient movement of labour and capital.
Our blinkered ruling class appear oblivious to these benefits which is both a tragic and scandalous failure of leadership.
In an increasingly interconnected world, it is in Kenya’s best interests that native born citizens be knowledgeable about and involved in the world. It is notable that most of the Kenyan Diaspora is concentrated in the richest countries and Kenya would benefit two fold were it to allow dual citizenship.
Political loyalty is far different from nostalgia and the desires to make things better in the land of one’s birth are two emotions Kenya should not dissuade. There is clear historical precedent and hard evidence that affection for—and even service to—one’s homeland is not incompatible with Kenyans Diaspora taking up British, American or Canadian citizenship. The more than 10 million Jews living outside Israel but eternally welcome in Israel do not love Israel any less than their countries of domicile.
Dual citizenship does not weaken Kenyan loyalty; to the contrary, it strengthens Diasporas’ feeling that they are welcome by reassuring them that they will not be punished for loving their homeland. Many of the countries that allow duo citizenship do so because they understand that a great country would not want to make citizens out of those who do not care about the fate of the land of their birth.
The medieval maxim that a man or woman should no more have two countries than two wives or husbands is based on a misleading allegory. The better comparison is between two different kinds of loyalties, to parent and spouse: An individual is bound to one by nature (birth), and to the other by choice (love or marriage). One can love both equally strongly, but in different ways.
I hope Hon Wetangula , Richard Onyanka and Otieno Kajwang –will be reading this and hope they will fast track into law, dual citizenship to correct this shameful position for a most valuable group of Kenyans.
The government they serve may be remembered by us lot for years to come.
The writer is a Kenyan working as a lecturer in Britain.
akkamotho@yahoo.co.uk