MEMBERS & VISITORS
President Obama and I Have Thoughts About Kenya
President Obama and I Have Thoughts About Kenya
Like Obama, I have learned many things about Kenya by simply being here and living amongst its people. These are things that I could never have learned through books, including the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ve often said that if Kenya could be scooped up and plopped anywhere in the United States, that would certainly be a prime choice of where America’s wealthy would choose to live. The feared and dreadlocked Mau Mau freedom fighters against Britain’s colonial rule were based not too far from where I purchased land to build my own home in paradise. Unspoiled nature sings powerfully into my essence every day. My heart breaks when I hear of a bright and promising new college graduate who was being coerced to pay the equivalent of $5,000 in bribes (Average annual income is $1,246) to the hiring manager in a public institution if she wished to be hired. Yes, she wouldn’t have to leave Kenya for great opportunities if she had enough money to put in the correct hands under the table…
I also see that the future of Africa is up to Africans! In that faith I am establishing
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Invention School
to guide a cadre of youth on paths of innovation and renewal. This has become my life’s work because I’m certain of an extremely bright future for an Africa that is free of the spiritual, financial, mental, and political bonds of colonialism. I’m now living permanently in East Africa. The years of my early adulthood, not just weeks, were spent in West Africa so “Home” is anywhere I go, from the huge urban metropolis of Nairobi, to the verdant hills of Aburi, Ghana to the vast scorching plains of the Sahara desert and back to the incredibly fertile highlands of the Rift Valley.
This is my home…
Prof. Oku Singer, Mechanical/Solar Engineer
(27)
