Diasporic Curse?

I, like many other Kenyans, would like to live in a country where systems work. I would like to have unlimited opportunities to utilise all my skills and talents, and make a lot of money in the process. I would like that utopian country to be Kenya. This however, may not become the case in the foreseeable future. The only other option left to us to achieve these high dreams is to move to those countries where systems work and opportunities are many.

I have many friends and relatives living and working in other countries.  They are mostly in the US, the UK, but also in the Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Dubai. There are others in myriad other countries.

Remittances from Kenyans living in the Diaspora are now well over a hundred million dollars per year. This shows that all those laymen out there in the land of opportunity are achieving something good. Many have also been able to advance their education and I believe the experiences they get there make them into better Kenyans.

Being a layman, I don’t know whether I am overreacting, or I if I have any cause to be concerned. I have however noted that of late, there have been several reports in the media of cases which show that life in the Diaspora may not be as rosy as we have always been led to believe. Two recent reports of homeless Kenyans dying in the US shocked me. One was an IT graduate who had even worked for big companies in the US. It was reported that he developed a respiratory infection due to exposure to the cold weather. The other one succumbed to the flames in a burning building where he had apparently been getting shelter since he did not have a home.

I know many Kenyans in the US who are doing well, but the above cases might point to a hidden problem somewhere. The number of these cases may only comprise a very small percentage of the entire Diasporic Kenyans, but these are only public due to their extreme eventualities. I have been wondering, how many Kenyans are homeless and destitute abroad? How many did not have their expectations of success and prosperity met? How many are living hand to mouth in conditions that would embarrass their relatives back home? How many refuse to come back home due to shame? Many questions without answers but anyhow, a layman is allowed to wonder.

There have been many reports in the media of house helps being mistreated in Arab countries, some to the extent of getting killed. This is after being promised well paying jobs which can get them and their families out of poverty. The rosy picture created by agents as they recruit workers for these jobs is almost always a mirage. Many of them end up regretting but by then it is too late. Confiscated travel documents could mean that one cannot even travel back home.

I have been hearing of incidences where the workers are virtually turned into slaves. They are denied such basics as food and medical care. Others are used for ‘purposes’ other than those they were promised they would be doing. The list goes on and on.

This is one topic in which I can truly be a layman. I am an aspiring ‘Diasporian’, but I have never been one. I can only say what I have heard about these things. The rosy picture on the one hand and the gory one on the other can only be clarified by those who are actually in the Diaspora. For the rest of us laymen back here at home, we can only hope and pray that we will also get the opportunity to share in the milk and honey, in the land where there are no shoe shiners (because there is no dust or mud – or so we hear). We are ready to wait (what else is there to do?).