uncouth part2

ive thought soooo much about how to respond to the article that deno posted! and its actually quite saddening adn scary, because to me im thinking it sucks that we as kenyans are turning on each other like this.
and this article is an example of EXACTLY why Kenya is not going to advance as fast as other nations..and why, developmentally, we will take eons to get anywhere.
first of all...i cant even believe that this guy actually sat down to write this! i mean i know that there is always some form of animosity between those who have left the country..for whatever reason and those who stayed at home...but to relegate those abroad to a 'non-kenyan' status...thats abit harsh, and quite regressive if you ask me.
now...maybe im talking like this coz if i dont go home in the next 4-5 years...somebody may categorize me in the same way okungu did the KCA people, but i dont get why EVERYOTHER country has no beef with their fellow citizens being at home or not...so long as they dont forget where they are frm. i had come across some forums and message boards where there was clear beef between kenyans at home and those abroad, but i had never taken it seriously....to me, it was just ignorant banter between groups of extremely bored individuals...but this article makes me think that this problem is so much deeper than i thought it was.
For those of you who are at home....is this REALLY what people think of Kenyans abroad?

when we take on the attitude that kenyans are only kenyans if they have lived in kenya...one: we destroy the entire concept and impact of a diaspora.
two: you will lose CRITICAL support. i mean why lie..its people like these ones in KCA who are in the best position to bring in some foreign currency, solely because they identify with the land where they were raised...

With all due respect for the founders of Kenya Community Abroad, there is not much you can do to help Kenya as Kenyans, because you are not Kenyans.
But we are ready to welcome you home as our distant cousins and foreign benefactors for our poor villages, just like any missionary white American from Nebraska or Colorado.
Welcome home!

three: we ignore sooo many circumstances that have led to kenyans being abroad adn staying abroad...dual citizenship issues, exile issues.,...
How can we literally categorize who or what is a kenyan?And if those who are in the diaspora are not Kenyans...and are merely 'benefactors' or missionary white Americans (k! how IG'NANT is that)....then where do they belong? do they lose citizenship/ nationality?
Heres another response to Okungus article...maoniz?


I'm sure you've had loads of replies to your piteous cry for equality with the brain drain crew. You certainly have a point about foreign benefactors; Kenya is only one of many African countries with a major source of foreign exchange in its diaspora. However, with regard to your upset with erstwhile Kenyans who left and have not returned, now being in their 60's - do you mean to condemn us all to their fate? The almost brain dead functionaries of the Ministry of Planning and National Development will doubless consider themselves vindicated by your lining up with them, displaying the same kind of mental processes.

The exigencies of higher education in Kenya being what they are, I was 27 by the time I was able to leave the country to get the training I needed to do my work, to open my cartoon studio in Kenya; my life carried on regardless, and now I have a child to think of. I am 30 now, halfway through my training, and at just the delicate moment you identified. I have carefully chosen a mate who would be happy to move to Kenya with me - but how will we manage, in the end, if you guys don't let Britons hold dual citizenship with Kenya? Are our families to come home on 3 month visitors' visas, renewable 3 times? Is someone who grew up in the UK to consider holding different citizenship with her mother because you champion narrow mindedness? Be sensible - that kind of thinking kept one generation outside your borders, at least learn from it!

It is fatal to back yourself into a corner - to claim that to be a Kenyan you must meet some standard of suffering, or be able to influence the world on Kenya's behalf. In fact the suffering faced down by the black emigrant to a white man's world is likely to cause him or her to value the home country far more than anything Moi and his ilk could bring to bear.

Don't imagine that because we managed to move to the West we must be Supermen and Women, we're just ordinary people trying to get the best out of life like any Kenyan!