Mama Shujaa

I am unresolved about the article. Feelings of annoyance and guilt stir within; a tension stronger than my usual polite appreciation of such articles. As I write about it, I struggle, thoughts glued together, bound up as if in an outdated textbook. The casual tone of the article irritates me.  Potential, Poverty, Politics & Parties: Why Kenya Attracts America's Best & Brightest Young Social Entrepreneurs makes comment on the development of my country as if it were just another accumulation of spectacles. It starts with the dubbing of potential as "the people, not just their fellow expatriates, who seem to keep coming [to Nairobi from Wall Street, Harvard, Stanford and MIT] in droves...but the young Kenyans...craving something different." It cites a slowly improving education system; an increasingly robust sector full of entrepreneurial ideas; Diasporans eager to be a part of Kenya's movement; and the budding microfinance institutions, M-Pesa, Ushahid...

You are invited to participate in the forthcoming second Kenyan Diaspora International Conference and Investment Forum to be held in Atlanta, Georgia from August 20, 2009 through August 22, 2009. The conference is a follow-up to the first Diaspora Conference and Investment Forum held in Atlanta in March, 2007 which was a resounding success. The theme of the conference is " Building a Knowledge-Based Economy in Kenya: The Role of the Kenyan Diaspora ." The conference will include an Information Communication Technology ("ICT") mini-conference, and an Investment Forum. Running parallel to the conference component will be an Expo and Career Fair. The conference will bring together policymakers from Kenya, scholars, entrepreneurs, business leaders, the Kenyan Diaspora, and the general public. This biennial event presents an opportunity through which multiple stakeholders can engage the Kenyan Diaspora and potential foreign investors on effective initiatives to build ...