Kenyans shouldn’t depend on foreigners

from The Kenyan Times

BY JOHN CHERUIYOT

Hurricane Katrina stripped America naked in 2005 before the eyes of millions world wide. New Orleans a predominantly black town was exposed for the world to see raw poverty in the US. The ugly scenes of New Orleans shocked the world. Scenes mostly associated with third world poor were made public.

The whole world saw the abject poverty among the black population of New Orleans. I recently followed a live program in Aljazeera TV channel. It revealed the stark reality of poverty in the US. That 13% of American live below poverty line. That 37million Americans are poor. They cannot afford school fees; medical bills and rent. 16million of them are extremely poor. Majority or all of them are blacks or immigrants.

The reality sunk on me when a Kenyan Stephen Koech 44 died in January this year in the US.Koech was a jobless graduate at the time of his death. He died in his makeshift due to extreme temperatures. The decease a Kenyan from Kiowa in Kericho district had won a scholarship to study in the US. He studied in Texas College and graduated. Koech left Kenya a happy and a health man. He became a hopeless and homeless man in the US. He froze to death in his makeshift. To date his body is yet to be brought back from the US.

The US and Kenya governments have left the task of ferrying the man’s body to Kalenjin Kenyans in the US. Kalenjin scattered throughout the US have been raising funds for the transportation of the man’s body. US is a great economy in the world yet on the other hand it can be a ruthless hell to the poor and more importantly to immigrants. Stephen Koech had no green card. He thus was pushed into the ghettos of America. He lost his self-esteem. He became alcoholic and a lonely man. He became and lived subhuman life.

I met a Kalenjin Kenyan from US last year who candidly told me that life in America was deadly for those without papers. That he had been in the US for eight years. That seven of the years was hell for his family and himself. He was a student for all those years. He used to enrol and pay tuition but did not study. He instead spent all that time working using his student visa. It was when his wife won the green card that he came from the economic pit. He told me that there are two sets of Kenyans in the US.

Those with proper papers and the unfortunate lot. He further noted that the unfortunate Kenyans without proper papers are rejected and avoided by more successful ones. They then lose their sanity and thus become abnormal. Like Koech they resort to alcohol to forget their misery. US is not heaven as many Kenyans and Africans may think. It were better if Koech never went to US in the first place..

It was better if he never went to university. If he stayed with his form four educations and possibly pursued his studies in local universities would have lived to see his grand children. He died a single man without a family. He died a miserable life if among the poor village life-style. The people who live in slums and in absolute poverty in Kenya are basically the illiterate not the degree holders like late Koech. Parents and Kenyans generally are happy when their children proceed to the US for studies.

They are basically thrilled and are proud when their own are in the US. With the death of Koech in extreme poverty many Kalenjin villagers will now be sceptical to allow their children go to the US. Indeed unless Kenyans themselves revamp their economy no one will. Kenyans and Africans in general must come to terms that the Diaspora are basically being exploited and may not necessarily be enjoying in the western world.

The West will not really create jobs for us unless we work extra hard to develop our nation. The US friend told me something that shocked me the more that Americans are not ready to give the posh jobs to foreigners.

The foreigners are given those jobs rejected by the locals. Hence highly trained are forced to do odd jobs. Jobs not related to their training. Foreigners in the West do not enjoy liberty the way Westerners do in the third world nations. Indeed in Kenya today Westerners are the top brass of society. They are employers and owners of means of production. They are in fact the elite. They brush shoulders with the mighty and the powerful. Kenyans respect and adore such foreigners. Kenyans are marginalised the same way they are in foreign lands.

The suffering Kenyans in foreign lands undergo especially educated men like the late Koech should help us learn a lesson or two. That Kenya and Africa were given to us the black race by God for our own good.

It is ridiculous for Kenyans to surrender their resources to foreigners when the same foreigners cannot do the same for them in their countries. It is time all our raw materials are processed in our country to create jobs for our own people. It should dawn on our politicians that the so-called strategic partners and donors are not in our nation for our good but our good.

Kenyans should learn from the Asian tigers that development is not the domain of the west. It should dawn on the intelligentsia that the destiny of Africa and Kenya in particularly is not with foreigners but in our own genius. We should not embrace tourism as an alternative economic venture when our children are rape in five star hotels. Sex tourism will not help develop our country but will essentially destroy our morals. We should have confidence in ourselves. Many Kenyans cannot believe that we can make our own mobile phones and our own cars.

Many particularly the educated degree holders cannot believe in themselves to give birth to new ideas and new parameters in every field. Unfortunately our universities are not driven by new ideas and new paradigms. They reason why the leadership our leaders have no confidence in themselves and in their ideas. They are used to mitumba technology, mitumba culture and mitumba education and technology. If we as a nation get a leader driven by a vision of creativity we shall become a knowledge economy in our generation. Poverty and hopelessness will become a museum case. The destiny of our nation and our race are within our reach. With hard work and radical change in the way we have done things for centuries will turn our hopeless state into a great opportunity. jcruiyo@yahoo.com