Kenyan Diaspora Shouldering Foreign Investment & Poverty Reduction

The agenda was an ambitious program covering a wide range of topics from defining and mapping the Kenyan Diaspora, Kenya government’s policies initiatives for facilitating Diasporas participation in national development, exploring the emerging investment climate and opportunities in Kenya and discussing investment products in Kenya available to the Diaspora among other agendas. The efforts were geared toward providing pertinent fact-based information, highlighting Kenya as a viable investment destination for the Diaspora, thus turning the current brain drain into national asset - net gain.

At the end of the first day, all delegates and participants engaged freely in a heated brainstorming session defining and spelling out the role of the Diaspora in an open roundtable forum dubbed the World Café.

The second day was an investment forum whose theme was “WEKEZA KENYA” where Hon Amos Kimunya, Kenya’s Minister of Finance delivered the key note speech Recent Economic Development and the Next Step: Vision 2030. This was a highly technical presentation outlining the country’s economic recovery process, which the current government has put in motion since 2003, and the ongoing policy initiatives to consolidate and accelerate the recovery. The minister highlighted the three pillars underpinning the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation (ERS) as rapid growth through macro-economic stability, enhancing equity and poverty reduction and improved governance for an overall enabling climate. This message was further emphasized by the members of government delegation including Dr. Gakuru Wahome, the acting Director of Vision-2030 who further described the step-by-step process of delivering Vision 2030. Dr. Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Communication projected Kenya as the next African Lion in his well animated presentation, daring the participants to have the right mindset and take on development challenges as opportunities (Penicillin or Pentium?).

Wealth creation and opportunities available to all Kenyans were laid bare by the veteran stock exchange guru, Mr. Jimnah Mbaru, who demonstrated the astronomical annual capital appreciations of NSE in the past three years and the impressive performance of some of the stocks listed in the Exchange e.g. a 230% and 215% appreciation for Equity Bank Ltd and ICDC Investments respectively in 2006/07. According to Mbaru, the NSE has turned some enterprising Kenyans into millionaires many times over, in the last 4 years. Opportunities in the energy sector, capital markets, tourism and infrastructure were all spelled out during the breakout sessions. The day saw the participants’ dreams of accessing mortgage products and owning homes in Kenya becoming a reality in the near future with facilitation from such companies as Housing Finance and National Housing Corporation on site. Other Real Estate companies were at hand to offer ready homes and property management services for those living abroad. Banking services was made easy with options galore from Equity Bank Ltd. and Barclays Bank of Kenya who saw long queues of eager Kenyans waiting for their turn with the financiers. The event came to a rousing conclusion with Hon. Kimunya calling on Kenyan in the Diaspora to be part of the “new Kenya” and help propel the country to the next level. As Mr. James Mwangi, CEO Equity Bank Ltd. eloquently put it “no civilization has ever civilized another”. The onus is on us as a nation to steer the country to the ultimate destination we desire it to be. The time is now; why wait for 2030 when we can prosper while developing and fighting poverty back home?

Conference Organizers (Wangeci Gatei, Hana Okolo, Kihumba Ndiritu, and Macharia Waruingi)

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