Kenyans in US to raise funds to help hunger victims

By Chris Wamalwa in USA

Kenyans in the United States will on Saturday October 29, meet to raise funds to help hunger victims in the arid and semi-arid parts of Kenya.

The event to be held at Church of Nazarene 9704, Rhode Island Avenue will be presided over by Kenyan ambassador to US, Elkanah Odembo assisted by Matunda Nyanchama, founder member of Kenya Community Abroad (KCA) but now a resident of Ontario, Canada.

The Diaspora Kenyans for Kenya fundraising is part of the Kenyans for Kenya campaign, an initiative of the Kenya Red Cross, KCB Foundation, Safaricom Foundation and the Media Owners Association that was launched to raise an estimated Sh1 billion over a period of four weeks.

Members of New England Kenyan Association (NEKA) line up to donate towards the hunger funds drive by Kenyans in the Diaspora (Boston, Mass) in support of the Kenyans for Kenya initiative. (Photo:Chris Wamalwa/Standard)

The funds donated through the initiative would be channelled towards both short term solutions- emergency food relief and water trucking and medium to long term solutions-rehabilitating or sinking boreholes and setting up greenhouses to improve food security.

The event brings together Kenyans living in the so called Metro or DMV areas of Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia.

This event comes barely a week after a similar one held in Boston, Mass helped raise $15,000 (Sh1.5 Million) during the Mashujaa day celebrations organized by a loose coalition of church and civic organisations based in Massachusetts.

The money will also go towards supporting the worldwide effort against the hunger ravaging the Turkana District, North Eastern province and Eastern province in Kenya.

Though a lot of efforts in terms of time and money has been expended in planning these two key noble events in areas that boast some of the largest numbers of Kenyan residents, the mistrust, suspicions and horse-trading that have characterised the process of planning the events has only helped to expose sharp divisions within the Diaspora that have been festering for a long time.

It's these divisions along tribal lines, political affiliations, religious (denominational) groupings and negative competitions among civic groups that led to endless postponement of events that were time sensitive and held an 'urgency of now' rider.

Though audits of the Kenyans for Kenyans initiative record impressive contributions from the Diaspora, it's believed these contributions were made at a personal level and not as organized groups though there are some churches that organized their funds drives and forwarded their contributions.

"I totally agree with you that this fundraising should have taken place three months ago. The truth is that here in New England, we are so divided and mistrustful of each other that in spite of the fact that we have numerous churches and civic groups, none of them was trusted enough to bring together all Kenyans living in the New England area around one cause," Said Harrison Maina, founder and owner of Ajabu Africa Media.

Maina says that they had decided to join the Kenyans for Kenya campaign immediately it was launched in Kenya by organizing the funds drive under an existing organization known as New England Kenyan Association (NEKA), a more encompassing grouping but they had so much opposition from religious groups that they had to drop the idea altogether.

Interestingly, a similar fate befell the Church of Nazarene event that should have taken place three months ago.

"We have a good number of Kenyan based churches and organisations that could have easily put together this event long time ago. The problem, as always with our community, is we couldn't trust anyone organization to do this so we had to create a new entity to actualize the event and that's why it has taken this long," Said Andrea Onuong'a, organizing chairman of the church of Nazarene fundraiser.

Onuong'a disclosed to the Standard that in fact the coalition they put together for the express purpose of organizing the event is not even registered. It only exists as a web site.

It's believed by many Kenyans in Diaspora that what is happening in the New England and the DC metro areas was a microcosm of what is going on among the Kenyan community in the US. Divisions along tribal and religious lines among the Diaspora has become so rampant that many people are now seriously concerned.

"While our people have made milestones in terms of educational attainment and social standing, they have become even more polarized and divided to the extent that it's now almost impossible to do anything as a community from one nation," Said Matunda Nyanchama.

Nyanchama like many others are concerned that these divisions have weakened the Diaspora's negotiating power especially when it comes to political involvement back home. These divisions prompted Ambassador Elkanah Odembo to decree that, he will not attend any gathering organized against tribal lines.

"I made it quite clear to everybody that it was a shame for the Diaspora to practice tribalism when the whole country expects them to lead by example. I have said it in no uncertain terms that, if you organize a function along tribal lines, rest assured that Elkanah will not waste the governments resources to show up. I respect people coming together to celebrate their common heritage but I will personally not do so on government time and money," Odembo told the Standard in an earlier interview.