Kenyans in US set for Vision 2030 meet
More than 500 Kenyans living in North America have registered for a conference this weekend on ways to help their homeland achieve the Vision 2030 goals.
Organised by Kenya's US embassy, the meeting in Washington will be addressed on Saturday by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga as well as by leading Kenyan scholars Calestous Juma, of Harvard University, and Ali Mazrui, a professor at the State University of New York.
Mugo Kibati, director of the Vision 2030 Secretariat, will speak on the Diaspora's current and potential contributions to development initiatives in Kenya.
Some of the Kenyans gathering in Washington will likely not be pleased about Prime Minister Raila Odinga's recent rejection of a proposal to create a Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.
Speaking last month in the US state of Minnesota, Mr Odinga said the central government is already too large. He noted, too, that the Constitution puts a cap on the number of government ministries.
However, the PM pledged to strengthen the Diaspora unit within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A background paper prepared by the Kenyan embassy says that the conference seeks to “ensure that the Diaspora remains engaged in the development of Kenya — from remittances to investment and entrepreneurship.”
The embassy estimates that Kenyans in North America accounted for 56 percent of the $70 million in remittances from Kenyans abroad in April. Kenyans residing in other countries sent home a total of $642 million last year, according to the embassy.
The background paper suggests that as many as 600,000 Kenyans currently live in the United States. A recent study by a Washington-based research institute using US Census data puts the number of Kenyan immigrants to the United States at about 87,000.
