Let us digress from the World Cup and focus on India. My first encounters with India were indirect, fascinating, and lasting.
Twenty cents was "rùbia". I later learnt that it was a rupee, the Indian currency. Was that the official exchange rate to the shilling? When?
The second encounter was in the white highlands. My dad would either get his farm inputs from Kenya Farmers Association (KFA) stores or “Kwa Unia".
The Unia buildings still exist. One in Ol Kalou was built in 1946, but the Unias had been there longer, from 1931.
The name is not typically Indian like Patel, Singh or Chandrasekhar. The third encounter was in high school, where my physics, maths, chemistry and English teachers were Indians.
The lady teachers came wearing saris. Two Indian ladies taught us maths and physics long before women's empowerment became common. The Indian teachers followed me to campus, teaching me maths and physics.
Curiously, even in my graduate studies in America's Deep South, I still had Indian professors again in maths and statistics. I have not met an Indian historian.
Is Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in Indian blood? The Indian love for STEM was the lasting legacy of the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who started the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) in various states.
The oldest is IIT Kharagpur in 1951. The leaders of independent India quickly realised that self-reliance comes through STEM. India already had a legacy of STEM, winning a Nobel Prize in physics as early as 1930.
India's dalliance with STEM has paid off handsomely. India is a leader in medicine, pharmaceuticals, computer science and, lately, space. India is one of the five countries that have landed a spacecraft on the moon.
The fourth encounter was in their shops in downtown Nairobi as an undergraduate student. They would give crazy discounts on clothes and other items. Add Nairobi's Industrial Area, where Indians are predominant, mostly in manufacturing, a sector with high barriers to entry that needs lots of STEM.
The fifth encounter was even more fascinating. Up the Aberdares near Shamata Gate in Nyandarua County is an old house formerly owned by Col George Trent.
When I asked the son why his father chose to settle in such a high-altitude place (about 10,000 feet above sea level), he told me he wanted a place that looked like the Himalayas. His father had lived and worked in India near the famous mountains.
The last encounter was on a golf course. One of the golfers was a Unia! History connects Kenya to India through the building of the railway line from Mombasa to Uganda.
Another less-talked-about link is the Indian expeditionary forces that helped Britons defeat the Germans in World War I. The presence of temples in Nairobi and other major towns is yet another historical connection to the Indian subcontinent. Remember, there was a time when India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh were one country.
The more recent connections with India are less physical, like movies. They are a hit on vernacular TV stations with voice-overs. The themes are more peaceful compared with action movies with guns and violence. Remember Kumkum Bhagya? Will India finally get into our hearts and minds?
Many Kenyans have been to India for medical services. Indian doctors, particularly eye doctors and opticians, are also common in Kenya. Some Indian hospitals are also entering the Kenyan market. Curiously, few Kenyans visit India as tourists to see the Taj Mahal, the Bengal tiger, or the Ganges River.
Kenyans have also been to India to further their studies. Few returned speaking Hindi or with Indian wives like Kenyans who studied in Russia and other foreign countries.
Why are India institutes of technology (IITs) not advertising in Kenya? Yet some have acceptance rates lower than the Ivies'. The Indian Institutes of Technology are their MITs.
Are our technical universities the equivalent to IITs? Have we benchmarked with them? Why haven’t we built on these historical ties to deepen trade and catalyse technology transfer?
The gravity theory of trade demands we trade more with nearer countries and with bigger economies and populations. India qualifies. Beyond historical encounters and on the streets, our curriculum is thin on India. Is Mahatma Gandhi in our history lessons despite a statue at the University of Nairobi?
Optics matter. Any mega project backed by India? How should India get into our minds? Soft power? Is Bollywood the route? Any Indian newspapers or TV/radio stations in Kenya?
Any Kenyan learning Hindi beyond namaste. Curiously, even after Asians were declared the 44th tribe, I saw no concerted effort to bring India “closer” to Kenya. It’s a curious question why whites, mostly the British, were not declared a tribe first. Yet they came earlier than Indians and brought Indians to Kenya!
The relationship between India and Kenya has often been understated rather than absent. India's engagement is sometimes quieter than that of other major powers, making it less visible to ordinary Kenyans despite strong commercial, educational and people-to-people links.
The recognition of Kenyans of Asian heritage as the country's 44th tribe reflected their long contribution to Kenya's development. Yet there remains room to deepen cultural and public engagement so that the relationship becomes more widely appreciated beyond business circles.
My hypothesis is that India plays the long game. With a strong foundation in STEM, Indians today lead some of the world’s biggest technology companies and have given the UK a prime minister.
They head IBM, Microsoft, and Google, to mention just a few. India’s post-independence journey offers valuable lessons as Kenya expands its own universities and innovation ecosystem.
India may view Africa as its next strategic frontier, and Kenya is well placed to become an important gateway. But Kenya, too, must make a deliberate and concerted outreach to India—across government, business, academia and culture—rather than expect historical ties to sustain the relationship on their own.
Perhaps the next chapter will be driven not only by history but also by technology, investment, education and innovation.
