Nation article on Kenya Diaspora Conference

“Each one of us should send an Email to Daily Nation for writing what has not happened in the conference,” said an angry attendee to the conference who took the podium and addressed those in the conference, Sunday. The anger directed to an article published in the Kenya newspaper titled, “Obama Snubs Kenya’s Diaspora Conference.” The conference was attended by more than 500 Kenyans mainly living in the U.S and was centered on Diaspora Kenyans role in Kenya development.

The newspaper stated that the Kenya U.S Ambassador Elkanah Odembo said organisers of the event had invited Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan, to attend the event. President Obama of the U.S traces part of his roots from Kenya; however, he has never been a Kenyan expect for visiting and having relatives from Kenya. Just like a commentor in the newspaper section wrote, “Obama is not Kenyan...His father was Kenyan.” 

Of course Kenyans would have been thrilled if the President of U.S had attended the Kenya Diaspora Conference. And if the embassy did indeed explore this option then one can only say it is better to ask and get a, “No” than not to ask and never know whether you would have gotten a “Yes.”

The word “Snubs” as used could have resulted to most of the dissatisfaction expressed by Kenya Diaspora Conference attendees. When applied as a verb the word could mean “Fail to acknowledge,” however a reader can also interpret through other meanings like: Ignore, Shame, Humiliate or treat someone rudely with deliberate coldness of contempt or even as a noun to mean, Reject, Brush-off, Insult or make a remark intended to humiliate. If this was the intention of writer, then this can anger many.

It is thus understandable how one word may have given rise to the anger toward the newspaper expressed and resulted to comments like, “Really?! I was there and it was a very low key conference for the Diaspora so how come the Nation title it such that it seems Pres. Obama snubbed a major event?”

The Permanent Secretary of Planning National Development Dr. Edward Sambili in his closing the Conference encouraged those who want to be part of implementation of great ideas and the vision not to be distracted from the goal saying, “Let’s not get distracted by negative press coverage as noted here today.”