Kass FM - London (UK)

Branding Kenya - A Hard sale

With hardly an enviable backdrop, Kenyans have been told they need to wake up to the reality of the times and find their feet before it is too late. 44 years after independence the country reputably the most stable economy in the region, still struggles to come to terms with the revelations that almost brought the nation to its knees in 2008’s post-election violence.

It is with this understanding however that Kenyans are determined to rebuild a country that has witnessed rampant corruption amid a fare share of inept political leadership.

The responsibility to foresee this arduous task has fallen in the hands of the Brand Kenya Board (BKB) created under the instructions of His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki, and equally supported by the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Speaking at an invitational Diaspora Forum hosted at the Kenya High Commission Offices at 45 Portland Place on Friday, the Brand Kenya Board CEO, Mary Kimonye noted that the country needed branding, and their objective was to come up with a deliberate and well thought programme that defines our national identity, fosters social harmony and positions Kenya distinctively and impact fully on the global arena in terms of: Investment, Sports, Leisure, Holiday, Residence, Icons, Culture/ Heritage, plus Products & Services.

Ms Kimonye who was accompanied by the International Brand Manager for BKB, Jacquie Muhati-Lukiri told the gathering that the London forum was one of the several planned meetings to involve the Diaspora Kenyans in the project. The BKB team will soon visit the US and other areas where there are notable numbers of Kenyans in a bid to sensitize them on the issue at hand.

As part of their mandate; BKB are charged with;

• Ensuring an integrated national brand is created, harnessed and sustained in the long term both nationally and internationally.

• Nationally, build national identity and pride in every Kenyan.

• Internationally, restore confidence in Kenya among investors, visitors, tourists and development partners.

The occasion host His Excellency Ephraim Ngare, Kenya’s High Commissioner to the UK applauded the efforts of BKB, saying the Government was behind them and that Kenyans in general both at home and abroad were looking keenly to see that the board achieved its aims in mobilizing and creating awareness as a way of enhancing nationalism among the people.

In response the UK Kenyans challenged the team on several issues that they felt had been neglected by the country’s political leadership. Perez Ochieng CEO of SACOMA International, a community based charity operating in the UK said Diaspora Kenyans had been continually discouraged by the lack of support by parent Ministries in Kenya when they tried to support those disadvantaged in society. Pastor Odima, a preacher based in London posed the big question to the BKB team; “Is Kenya Saleable?” The Pastor congratulated the team on their Endeavour noting that they ought to address the root course of the problems that have beleaguered Kenyans at home if they wanted to expand social cohesion. He said that in the past, we have had commissions charged with similar responsibilities of improving rapport among Kenyans without any success.

Dr. Martin Koyabe of the Kenya Overseas Business Alliance (KOBA), who were behind the facilitation of the UK Forum suggested that BKB, should emulate what other top NGOs were doing by appointing celebrity ambassadors to champion the course among other things. Citing the example of climbing a mountain, Dr. Koyabe said documentation was paramount, “When climbing a mountain you do not have to look at just how far you have to go, but also how far you have come.” In this age of ICT advancement there is need to digitize whatever efforts have been implemented, for posterity, so that future generations can also benefit from hindsight. Any documented development as a basis of reference or intervention and as part of sustaining continuity.

Kamau Wainaina a Youth Programme Coordinator here in the UK, wanted to know the youth involvement and consideration in the BKB charter saying that on many occasions leaders claimed to be speaking and working on behalf of the youths when they did not understand the basic needs of the youth. He sought clarification on the issue of Youth categorization.

Macharia Gakuru, author of the Deya Biography, lamented the lack of recognition by the Government on professional input by those in the Diaspora and wanted to know if BKB had the necessary funding to support the international efforts expected to be carried out by Kenyans abroad.

Hon.Kajwang:Kenyan passports to have international integrity and respect'

Hon. Kajwang : ‘ Kenyan passports to have international integrity and respect’

by Kassfm London.

The Kenya High Commission in London yesterday launched, for the first time a passport issuing facility. Hon. Otieno Kajwang Kenya’s Immigration ministry and accompanied by his senior officials from Nairobi, declared the official launch in the inaugural speech read to over 50 guests who had turned up to witness the event. Mr.Addison Chebukaka the deputy high commissioner started the programme, at the chancery, by welcoming guests and introducing Mr.Ngare Waweru, the twelfth high commissioner of Kenya to the court of St.James. The speeches were aired live via kassfm International London. Later Hon.Kajwang talked to kassfm London and the following are excerpts from the interview. Kajwang leaves this morning to Washington.

Kass London: Honorable Kajwang welcome to London.

Kajwang: Thank you very much kassfm International London. I am glad meeting you.

Kass London: Why has this launch happens this time and not before. Has it come out a little bit late?

Kajwang: yes, this is something that we should have done long, long time ago. This because of time often time it takes for people to renew their passports and sometimes the loss they have to suffer when they are going for business meetings or sometimes when going for interviews and all of a sudden you find that your passport is about to expire and you don’t have enough pages on it and yet you want to replace it quickly so that you meet the deadlines which becomes a problem. It can take two to three months before your passport back home is processed and get back to you. So this is something that has been on going and we decided as a ministry that our need is really to deal with the need and the need was that we replace passports quickly on application. That basically what we have decided to come here and we are proceeding to Washington to launch a similar facility.

KassLondon: Could this advancement be attributable to the success of coalition government?

Kajwang: You may call it so, it has happened during the coalition but it really depends on making a decision and moving with it. It isn’t a very expensive thing. It isn’t outside this world. It is something that could be done with a deliberate effort and I think you can give it to our ministry that we decided to meet this need and we moved towards it and it is good that it has happened.

Kass London: As the minister of immigration, this is a great initiative, is this likely to go down as your greatest legacy?

Kajwang: There are many that I’d like to leave .This is one of them. I can tell you that at the end of the year we may be in Berlin to deal with continental Europe and we may be in New York to deal with a larger Kenyan community there. We are also moving even at home to other places. People thought Garissa was not the place to issue passports we are now issuing them. There are no issues. People thought we couldn’t go to Eldoret we are there. We are soon in Embu, Nyeri and Kisii. So we just want to clear the myth that getting a passport is something very mysterious and very difficult. It can be done especially with the help of Information Technology which helps us to see your application as you lodged it whenever it is.

Kass London: Kajwang, on the issues of security on the Kenyan passport there were concerns and fears that it could easily be tampered with. How true is that?

Kajwang: Actually we have actually improved security passport a great deal. If you look at the new passport we have just issued, it is much more complex in terms of the security features and in terms of how it is manufactured. But it is much more expensive to try to copy it. I think it will not be very easy to try to tamper with it without making it very obvious that you have tampered with. Even the way the photographs are made there is one that is obvious and one that is kind of an image and there is one that you can only see under the light which your ordinary eyes can not see. Those very high security that are very complex. We are going to go biometric in our passport, where it is going to require your thump print, image in a chip inside the passport and it would be much more difficult to alter those features because you will not even be able to see them. We hope that by the end of the year we will be issuing complete passport with complete biometric with the chip with information on the face of the passport also contained in the chip. It will take so much money to tamper with it.