After a series of disasters, the dark cloud over Kenya could be lifting

Since 2003, when Kenyans were reckoned the most optimistic people on earth, this is perhaps the only other time eyes of the world have been focused on us with a positive gaze. In between, we have been in the limelight, but mainly for all the bad reasons. What with the focus trained on the post-election violence, the ICC cases, runaway corruption, ethnic animosity, political bickering and untamed insecurity — thanks to Al-Shabaab.

Wherever I have travelled, whether locally or abroad, these seem to have been the only items on the formal and informal agenda for any discourse on our beloved country. It has been difficult for many of us not to bear stooping shoulders and crest fallen faces. Even with all my patriotism, it has been uphill kujivunia kuwa Mkenya. Simply, the cloud over this nation has been thick, dark, and heavy!

But, Kenyans have been praying — in homes and in offices; in worship places and in open parks — pleading for God’s mercy and His favour. And I have every reason to believe the God of heaven, whose ears are not deaf and whose hands are not short, has been listening. At the risk of perhaps over spiritualising “ordinary” matters, I sense that many of the recent events in the land are clear indicators of His answer to those prayers. For example, the world that has been generally hostile and averse to any of our beckoning, is slowly but surely turning a positive glance in or direction. Just recently, the world was focused on Nyeri over the beatification of a virtuous woman. The recent re-opening of the Westgate Mall is for many a testament of the resurrection power of the Kenyan spirit. When I participated a few weeks back in dedicating of the building in prayers, the enthusiasm and high expectations by the traders was, for me, a reflection of the Kenyan grand resilience. And upon re-opening, Kenyans jam-packed the mall without any trace of the trepidation that terrorists thought they had instilled in us. Instead, the mall has become an international symbol of the overcoming power of good against evil and of hope against despair.

On the hospitality front, many of us may have been too much under the weather to have noticed just how many international conferences are coming to Kenya. The First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta has just hosted several Africa First Ladies for the 9th Cervical, Breast and Prostate Cancer in Africa Conference (SCCA). Soon to follow are the continent’s Heads of State attending the African Peer Review Forum in September. Before the dust settles, the tour operators will be here for their Global Conference. The year will then close with yet another major conference, the 10th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation. The New Year then opens with the Japan International Trade Conference.

Of course in the midst of this long list, the Obama visit is most certainly at the apex. By choosing to not only bring the Global Entrepreneurship Summit to Kenya, but to also personally attend, US President Barack Obama has succeeded in placing the greatest international confidence in the nation; and this, at our greatest point of need — economic growth and development. Some of the most powerful and most endowed men and women in the business world have trooped into the country at a time when even we as Kenyans have been scared to venture outside our homes.

But the list is not over. It appears the closing benediction for the year may be said by none other than the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis himself. As if not to be left behind, the Pope is also visiting Kenya in November. Surely, all these people cannot be rushing to Kenya at their own behest. God must be smiling in our direction. Special thanks are due to Him.