Although the meeting was not as long and interactive with the President as its organizers had hoped, it was nonetheless a successful one in that he continued to showcase his commitment to improving diaspora access and participation in government affairs.
For those who have been in the diaspora, in my case more than three decades and counting, there is a phenomenon we have witnessed that has remained constant regardless of who is president. This is the remarkable ability of Kenyans in the diaspora to be dependably disjointed.
A myriad of organizations and groups have been formed over the years and some continue to spring up, all purporting to do something about uniting Kenyans in the diaspora or creating an avenue to channel and pursue common interests.
However, no sooner are these groups formed than they disintegrate into the same old broken tools with inability to do anything or be effective in any way courtesy of an ever-present distrust, jealousy, and tribalism.
When the President’s visit was announced, Ambassador Lazarus Amayo impaneled a group of close to 100 members who were to deliberate and organize President Ruto’s side-bar meeting with the diaspora in Washington. The group was headed by Prof Charles Choti of Maryland, assisted by Prof. Peter Ndiang’ui of Florida.
What was unique about the group is that it remained and carried out its responsibilities as a non-partisan entity much as the President wanted it to be.
The mission being accomplished, the group’s admin Samuel Cheraisi closed it down and thereafter a postmortem meeting was held to take in the pros and cons from the successful presidential event as well as decide the fate of the group going forward.
While the latter bit was not resolved and remains pending, a few things can be said about the Kenya diaspora in my view.
In just the few months President Ruto has been in office, he has done more for the Kenya diaspora than any president before him. The President has also shown a commitment to work with the diaspora and help actualize her potential unlike any President before him and we are confident this shall come to pass.
The only enemy we must look out for and guard against are the same ones which have crippled and torpedoed similar efforts and these are distrust, jealousy, and tribalism.
In his speech to Kenyans in Washington, the President said the most important thing that happened in the 2022 elections is Kenyans voted on issues for the first time and, even more importantly, they were not herded to the polls and voted along tribal lines.
“We extinguished the flames of ethnicity in our country,” Ruto declared.
Let us hope and pray that was the case and remains so infinitely.
If it is and it applies in the diaspora context, then what the diaspora must contend and still deal with is distrust and jealousy. Distrust is largely brought about by individuals who consistently and tirelessly create brief-case organizations or even some that are legitimate only to advance their individual, self-serving pursuits, and nothing else.
Jealousy, there is nothing much that can be done with as it’s a human complex born of character traits one can hardly change of those possessed with it. Fortunately, those who would try and defeat noble ideals or objectives on account of jealousy are often outnumbered by those who do not or would not.
Given this dynamic, and for the President to further advance his commendable embrace and accommodation of the diaspora, it would be more effective to establish a constitutional commission that can serve as the umbrella diaspora leadership vehicle through which coordination can be had with the department of Diaspora Affairs.
If budget is a concern, there are many such commissions which exist but serve absolutely no purpose which the President can nix and allocate their budgets to this one.
