Posted on 10/28/2003 5:43:22 PM PST by blam
Thousands of Britons expelled by Kenya
By Adrian Blomfield in Nairobi
(Filed: 29/10/2003)
Thousands of Britons are facing banishment from Kenya following the announcement by President Mwai Kibaki's government yesterday that it would expel two-thirds of the country's expatriate workforce.
President Mwai Kibaki
British businessmen and economists denounced the decision, which will force out more than 16,000 of Kenya's 25,352 working expatriates, along with their families.
Between 30,000 and 50,000 Britons live in Kenya, more than half of whom are thought to be British Asians, prompting comparisons with Idi Amin's expulsion of Asians from Uganda in 1972.
"This is a racist and economically suicidal move by the government," one British businessman said. "What is the difference between this and what Idi Amin did or what Robert Mugabe is doing?"
Aware of the damaging publicity a mass exodus would cause, the government said the expulsion would be implemented over the next two years.
"It will not be a blanket removal," said Ali Mwakwere, the labour minister. "The process has already begun, but we are honouring existing work permits until they expire."
Mr Mwakwere said he would target skilled and semi-skilled foreigners in the manufacturing industry, many of whom are Asians from Britain and the Indian sub-continent.
Asian-dominated commerce is also in the sights of the minister, whose ruling will be welcomed by poor, nationalist Kenyans. "Quite possibly British Asians and Asians in general are the target," a British High Commission official said. "We are watching the situation closely."
Non-Asian Britons are likely to be forced out too, as Mr Mwakwere said the clearout would sweep through the hospitality and tourism sectors.
"We are looking at anywhere where a foreigner is doing a job a Kenyan could be doing," he said. "We have well-qualified tour guides and so on who are out of a job."
Under Kenyan law, an expatriate whose two-year work permit is not renewed must leave the country with his family within two months.
Missionaries have won an exemption and the government has promised that senior managerial and technical staff at multinational companies will be allowed to stay.
Despite those promises some British businesses say they have already had work permit applications for technical staff rejected.
Several British schools were threatened with closure when permits for expatriate teachers were rejected. An appeal by the British Government and by cabinet ministers whose children are educated in the private system won the schools a reprieve.
British businessmen welcomed Kenya's attempts to root out foreigners who had illegally acquired work permits from corrupt officials in the previous government of Daniel arap Moi.
But they said a number of technical specialists had been refused permission to remain, although they were in roles that could not be filled by local people.
Economists said the expulsion order was completely at odds with the president's appeals to multinational companies to invest in Kenya and revive the flagging economy.
I would like to see the United States do something like this as well. The problem is our tax code. Many companies refuse to train employees anymore; the agument is they fear the worker will leave for a better job.
Duh! You leave before you're laid off.
Rainbow nation fears new bloodbath of whites ***WHEN Nelson Mandela came to power in 1994 he declared South Africa would be a "rainbow nation" free from the hatred brought by years of apartheid.
But now a very different African leader's influence threatens to shatter the dream of a racially-tolerant country with increasing numbers of white farmers being murdered by impoverished blacks inspired by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's policy of taking away their land by force.
In South Africa, more than 1,500 white farmers have been killed since 1994, compared to 14 murdered by Mugabe's supporters in three years of violence in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
Most have died during robberies, but, according to a devastating report commissioned by South African President Thabo Mbeki's government, they are increasingly being killed by farm workers who want land of their own.
In Pretoria on November 4, a cross-section of that country's top security officers, academics and lawyers will meet to discuss what is seen as a serious threat to national security and the future of organised agriculture in South Africa.
They plan to tell the deeply worried Mbeki that he must take immediate action to meet the aspirations of millions of landless black South Africans.
A decade after the African National Congress (ANC) came to power promising blacks an end to white political and economic rule, some 40,000 whites dominate almost all aspects of food production. Mbeki recently condemned what he called the "two societies" that still exist in post-apartheid South Africa.
But black activists like Supho Makhombothi, of the Mpoumalanga Labour Tenants' Association (MLTA) which represents landless farm labourers in the impoverished Piet Retief and Wakkerstroom districts, are tired of rhetoric.
"We have waited long enough. Nothing has happened despite all the promises made by the African National Congress (ANC) about returning the land to us," he said.
"We are still living in slavery. We have therefore given the government an ultimatum to give us land or we will simply follow the example of our brothers in Zimbabwe and invade."***
Chavez foes slam land grants - 'Agrarian Reform' and "Land Redistribution' in Venezuela***Under the law, the land distributed to the peasants is still owned by the state, and the government must encourage the formation of peasant cooperatives and collective farms, where the state is to provide housing, health care and education. The law also gives the government power to dictate how private land can be used, based on soil conditions and the country's food-security needs.
Critics argue that the law violates the right to private property and is a throwback to state-planned communist economies.
"The model of the collective farm doesn't respond to our reality," said Roque Carmona, founder of Campesino Alliance, a nonprofit organization that helps small-scale farmers. "It looks good on paper, nothing more."
Government officials maintain that the ban on giving up ownership of state property is an attempt to avoid the failures of past land reforms in Venezuela and elsewhere, in which small farmers who lacked credit or government support eventually had to sell their plots to large landowners.
They also argue that forming peasant cooperatives is the only way campesinos can compete with large agribusinesses.
Mr. Chavez has defended the law in terms of social justice and by appealing to the need for "food security," mandated by the constitution passed in 1999 during his first year as president. ***
First of all let me say that i am kenyan, and hence i obviously possess indepth knowledge of the current situation in Kenya. When it comes to the education system Kenya has the one of the most comprehensive (and most intense) educational systems in the world. Actually the last time i checked the statistics (a couple of years ago) it was behind India and S.Korea only. There are several systems utilized, ranging from the indigenous KCSE (which is super hard) to the British GCE and GCSE systems, and even some Swiss based systems like the I.B.
I personally took the KCSE, the IB, and some GCSE aspects.
Let me put it this way ....when i came to the US for my studies i basically was getting bored in class. Why? The things i was being taught in 'unversity' i had learnt and mastered between standard 6 and form 4 (7th to 12th grade). Many of the principles that were dumbfounding my fellow students here were basically mundane facets that i had accomplished in the standard 7, yet here they were going by fancy names like 'Higher Physics' (actually that was hilarious because the higher physics and math i took back home was light years beyond anything i found here ......the closest i got to it was when i checked some engineering stuff for the graduate level).
Needless to say i was getting straight A's, participating in all sorts of studennt/social stuff, and not even studying hard! No need .....easy classes, rudimentary information, and the 'students' i was sitting with here were basically so inept that i honestly felt sorry for many (especially when i compared them with some of their international buddies). And i am not talking just sheer brain power (because American kids are not dumb), but more along the lines of lack of diligence, work ethic and analogous problems. One time i had to organize a rock concert just to get those kids to even bother coming to register Republican for the last prez. elections. I blame it more on apathy than brain cells.
Anyways, going back to kenya, the education system is great. The only problem is there is a lack of jobs. Many people start small setups and the like, but what is needed is big employment dynamos.
I can understand what Prez. Kibaki is trying to do .....create more opportunities for Kenyans since they can do virtually everything the ex-pats do .....the only problem is the WAY he is doing it. It appears, to be honest with you, too similar to what Mugabe wants. Now, iof you look at the details and the reasons the two are not even tantamount .....but to an 'untrained eye' or a 'biased mind' a rush to judgement can occur and Kibaki can find himself painted with the same pariah brush as Mugabe.
However i udnerstand why Kibaki is doing this. Basically for the same reasons many on FR scream, shout and rant when US jobs go overseas when there are qualified Americans who can do them.
The only difference is that in Kenya the Kenyans can do those jobs far cheaper than the ex-pats can, while in the US the Indians/Chinese/etc can do the jobs cheaper than Americans.
Look at the whole picture sir.
Thanks.
By the way Kenya is one of the most developed countries in Africa. Nairobi is a bustling metropolis, and it is one of the success stories of Africa. The major problem there is the dichotomy between the rich and the poor ....i.e a weak middle class (which is the case in very many nations). Kenya is also on the way of achieving 'industrialized status' by 2020, which is very good for any, so called, developing nation. The probelm is that most outsiders only see the national parks, or see documentaries of poor people, and nothing else.
It is basically like me watching a flick of urban ghetto life in the US, and assuming everyone in the States smokes a blunt, drinks 40ounce bottles of cheap booze in brown bags, speaks amazingly incoherent english, and drives around at night shooting at innocents. Obviosuly that is not the case.
As i said before .....look at the whole picture.
Seriously speaking, any parent with a young child needs to find that book and give it to his/her child. Makes a great difference.
Anyways freep on and be blessed.
A.
Yup. I wonder how long it will be before we hear that Africa's problems are because it has been ignored by the western nations?
It is very difficult for someone like myself, thousands of miles distant, to assess a situation in east Africa. You did a fine job in filling out an imcomplete picture of the situation in Kenya.
But it has been my sorry experience here in the U.S. to discover jobs I'm qualified for going to foreigners brought in simply because an employer erroneously believes they'll work more industriously for less salary. My feelings are that employers should look among the locals first before hunting beyond the national borders. It seems the grass (employees) is always greener (better) on the other side of the fence (border).
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