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Editor’s Note: This opinion article was first published on Citizen Digital in Kenya.
Principal Secretary (PS) Roseline Njogu exuded confidence upon her swearing in as the head of Diaspora Affairs in the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
In subsequent appearances on Spice FM, and Jeff Koinange Live (JKL), she highlighted how the government plans to engage Kenyans in the diaspora. Here is an open letter to PS Njogu.
According to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), there are close to one hundred sixty thousand Kenyan diasporans in the United States.
Globally, this number is estimated to be over half a million. However, the exact number of Kenyans in the U.S. is not known. It is estimated.
The first outreach by the P.S. to engage Kenyans in the U.S. is to establish a formal count for 2023 to verify their location and numbers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot engage Kenyans in the diaspora and offer them quality services without knowing their specific number and location.
Related to this is the need for more access to services from the embassy. Kenyan immigrants are widely distributed across the U.S.
However, there are only embassy services in Washington D.C. and consular services in Los Angeles and New York. Yet thousands of Kenyans live outside these three cities.
A significant population resides in Boston, Dallas, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Seattle, and Atlanta. Finding a way to provide services such as ePassport and I.D. applications, replacement of lost birth certificates, and voter registration will be positive first steps in engaging the diaspora.
In facilitating the diaspora engagement process, the P.S. and Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Ministry should advise parliament to amend the constitution on citizenship.
The requirement that citizens by birth must apply for the citizenship they lost because they acquired another nationality before the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution seems arbitrary, cruel, and burdensome.
It is inconvenient to force Kenyans forced out of the country because of political repression and deteriorating economic environments to apply for visas to come to their country of birth.
In collaboration with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the P.S. must ensure diasporans do not continue to be disenfranchised at the ballot box.
For instance, In the 2022 general election, Kenyans in the U.S. could only vote for the president. Not for the positions of Governor, Senator, Member of Parliament, Member of County Assembly, or Women’s Representative.
Denying diasporans down-ballot voting opportunities constitutes voter suppression and could get the government in a legal quagmire in the event a disenfranchised voter petitions the courts for redress.
With diaspora diplomacy being one of Kenya Kwanza’s central platforms, the P.S. should address the process of wealth acquisition in Kenya for diasporans.
For example, land acquisition and property purchase are slow processes shrouded in bureaucracy that makes acquiring the title for properties purchased a long process.
Unscrupulous lawyers, brokers, and diaspora family members take advantage of the fact that diasporans are abroad to scam them of their hard-earned money.
The uncertainty surrounding land and property purchases is one of the biggest impediments to vastly increasing diaspora investment in Kenya.
Lastly, thousands of Kenyans live in the shadows in America. Usually, visa overstayers, who either came on student or tourist visas that then expired.
Grueling stories have been told of Kenyans stranded and homeless in major metropolitan areas. Many have been caught in the conundrum that is the immigration legal maze and are either fearful or unable to reach out to the embassy for help.
The P.S. needs to locate these individuals for support and possible repatriation to Kenya, especially if their American dream morphed into an unending nightmare.
Ahsante!
Prof Monda teaches political science, international relations, and American government at the City University of New York (York College), New York, USA.
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