We have more to gain from stronger ties with Israel

Perhaps very few of us know that Kenya was once poised to become the homeland of the Jews. Historical records indicate that back in 1903, the British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain offered to Zionist leader Theodor Herzl a portion of the British East Africa Protectorate (current Kenya) to be designated for Jewish settlement. The 16,000 square kilometre piece of land (only six square kilometres less than current Israel) was to extend between Lake Nakuru, Kisumu, Mt Elgon, and the equator. The idea received an initial majority vote approval from the Sixth Zionist Congress in Switzerland, which agreed to send a team to spy the land. In 1905, a Zionist commission arrived in Kenya to investigate the possibility of a Jewish homeland. As they found out, the land was indeed flowing with milk and honey – but there were giants. 

Among the first hurdles was the cold shoulder the spies received from the then British settlers in Kenya, who feared being invaded by poor Jewish immigrants. The other giant was the Jews themselves. Some of them feared that the Kenya option would jeopardise their chances of acquiring a Jewish homeland in Palestine – the true Promised Land. Thus, the Zionist Congress rejected the settlement plan and continued to agitate for a place in Palestine, a dream they realised in 1948.