ATLANTA, GA – About five years ago, then Kenyan Ambassador to the US, Dr. Yusuf Nzibo, met with the Kenyan community in Atlanta. The Association of Kenyan Professionals in Atlanta (AKPA), an organization that would address Kenyan issues and create an opportunity for Kenyans in Atlanta to network was born. At its inception, AKPA had modest goals. However, over the years, it has developed to become the biggest Kenyan professional association in the United States. AKPA strives to involve professional Kenyans in achieving their personal goals while lending a hand to Kenya.

AKPA chair, Jean Adero, told Mshale during an interview that AKPA hopes to work with other organizations across the United States to raise funds for development projects in Kenya, to develop its members’ careers, to grow their individual businesses and personal investment opportunities, as well as to ensure that Kenyan students arriving from Kenya are graduating from the various colleges and universities and moving on to achieve their goals.

This year, AKPA found a partner in Nobel Laureate’s Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement. In partnership with the movement, AKPA has begun a campaign to plant at least 1000 trees in Kenya within the next year. According to AKPA, only 2% of Kenya’s land area is under forest area leaving Kenya with one of the lowest forest covers in the world. The desert in Northern Kenyan continues to encroach inland creating a grave situation where individuals and organizations have to take an active role in promoting forestry. AKPA promises to create alliances to mobilize resources needed for planting and nurturing the trees.
 

At a recent gala in Atlanta to celebrate its fifth year, AKPA honored Pathways, an organization that it has been working with to sponsor Kenyan youth in achieving their academic goals at Kenyan universities. AKPA also gave out Student of the Year and Person of the Year Awards.

Titus Koipton Sairo, who was recognized as the student of the year, said he was honored to receive the award even though there were many other successful students. A modest man, Mr. Sairo is studying Nursing at Kennesaw State University where he will be graduating in December. Born on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the 49 year old Sairo admits that going to school in a foreign country at his age was a challenge. As he drives around in Atlanta watching people mow their lawns, he cannot help but think of his cattle which are dying thanks to the famine affecting parts of Kenya.

However, he is keen on having the needs of his people taken care of, and sees nursing as his calling. Mr. Sairo is optimistic that the new government will ensure equitable distribution of services especially marginalized pastoralist communities. Mr. Sairo is proud to be associated with AKPA whose goals he believes in. He is confident that necessary social and economic changes in Kenya are a community effort.

Having graduated from the University of Nairobi with an undergraduate degree in Zoology and a Masters in Veterinarian Entomology, Mr. Sairo believes that education brings freedom since it allows an individual to gain social and economic status. It is important then for individuals to use this power to make a difference in the lives of others.

For the past year, AKPA has worked closely with Pathways, an organization whose mission is to provide resources to people from developing countries. Pathways identifies high school students who have developed projects to help their community giving them scholarships for their university education. The students are then matched up with mentors, who assist them in carrying out their project idea, developing their leadership skills, and transition them into their career.

In a letter to AKPA and Pathways, Levis Maina, a student at the University of Nairobi, was grateful for the opportunity presented to him by Pathways. In his “Hands on Kenya” project, Mr. Maina and other college students volunteer to clean wards at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. Mr. Maina narrates the challenges faced by poor children in accessing basic needs such as medical treatment, education and even food. Mr. Maina is pursuing a degree in Commerce. The President and founder of Pathways, Deborah Gust was awarded the person of the year award for her exemplary leadership in creating educational opportunities through Pathways.

The well attended gala culminated with a performance from Soweto Street Beat, a South African traditional dance troupe.

Tanzania’s President,  (now Dr.) Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, yesterday assured an audience assembled at the atrium of the University of St. Thomas’ Minneapolis campus that Tanzania is the ideal destination for investors and tourists. Whereas he has only been in office as President for nine months, the “super diplomat” was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in law by Father Dennis Dease, President of the University of St Thomas in recognition of his dedicated public service stretching back to his school days.

The university, founded in 1885 in Saint Paul by Archbishop John Ireland, is the state’s largest independent university with international students comprising 3% of enrolled students.

Addressing the audience that comprised of American businessmen, students and academic staff at the University of St Thomas, President Kikwete described his country as one that was at peace with itself and its neighbors and was the perfect gateway to six land-locked countries in Eastern and Central Africa.

He promised to “stay the course” of economic reforms and liberalization started by his two predecessors, Presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Benjamin Mkapa in which the government’s role is that of creating a conducive atmosphere to investors while business activities are left in the hands of the private sector.

President Kikwete was accompanied by his wife Salma Kikwete, a big delegation of business executives from Tanzania as well as a few parliamentarians and cabinet ministers. He assured his audience that although Tanzania belongs to the list of 50 least developed nations in the world, “our situation is neither hopeless nor helpless as we have great potential for development and tremendous resources.”

Time Magazine has described Tanzania as “a country of the future” and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has rated the country as number one investment destination with the highest sales growth in a 2003 report of the investor’s perception survey.

The Tanzania Investment Center (TIC) reported that since its inception in 1997, it has been able to process investments from both foreign and local entrepreneurs totaling US $ 18 billion. According to the Director General of the Tanzania Investment Center (TIC), Emmanuel Ole Naiko, major investment opportunities exist in agriculture, tourism, mining, agricultural processing, floriculture and horticulture, service sector, lapidary, manufacturing industries and trade, Export Processing Zones (EPZ), timber and wood processing, Energy, and Economic infrastructure.

Tanzania is known as “The Land of the Kilimanjaro”, Africa’s highest mountain, and is endowed with unique world re-known tourist attractions such as the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater game reserves; and the exotic spice islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. It is the only country in the world that produces that most attractive gemstone named Tanzanite!

Presenting Tanzania’s attractive package to investors in a video presentation before President Kikwete spoke to the audience, TIC Director General Naiko said an investor in Tanzania enjoys a high degree of investment security without paralleled elsewhere. He said the country has a legend of peace and stability, respects democratic rule, transparency, rule of law and accountability in the political leadership, and has a business-friendly macro-economic stability with a low inflation rate of only 4.2%.

TIC offers a one-stop facilitation agency of the government services and a simplified bureaucracy of registering investors and businesses. Further, Tanzania has embarked on a partnership of dialogue between the government and the private sector and has created the National Business Council chaired by the President and incorporating private and government organs to avoid contradictions in policy.

The World Bank has ranked Tanzania as one of the top ten performers and its successful on-going economic liberalization measures with business-supportive legislation is being constantly improved through dialogue between government and the private sector. There are investment guarantees and settlement of dispute mechanisms in place and there is no risk of nationalization or expropriation.

Tanzania’s mining sector has potential for growth and is destined to a leadership position in the African scene as last year, 50 metric tons of gold were produced ranking Tanzania number three in Africa in the gold industry after South Africa and Ghana. As of now, there are 207 mining companies registered in Tanzania and Barrick Goldmine with an investment package of US $ 600 million is today Africa’s most modern gold-mine.

President Kikwete scooped an 80 percent landslide victory in elections held last year and was described by his hosts at the University of St. Thomas as “old enough to be wise and young enough to be a role model.” He was born in Bagamoyo, Tanzania in 1950 and graduated in economics at the Universsit6 of Dar es Salaam in 1975.

Speaking of himself as a breed among the new generation of African leaders, he humbled himself before such giants as Nelson Mandela, Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah but promised to “rise to the challenge to deliver” what Tanzania’s had entrusted him in the ballot box.

He said Tanzania was faced with “daunting challenges” that include poverty, inadequate educational and health facilities, petty corruption, and the HIV-AIDS scourge affecting nearly 2 million people. He said ours is a struggle to provide education to the people, meet their social services and provide amenities to populations where people still die of curable diseases. He was hopeful that with his motto of new speed, zeal and energy, and the commitment by Tanzanians to achieve success, these problems should be overcome with time.

On HIV–AIDS, he said only 40,000 of the country’s 440,000 people who should be on ARV drugs get them and the goal is to provide all who require them by 2008. He thanked the Bush Administration for their Emergency Funding Program and the Clinton Initiative in assisting such efforts.

Describing corruption as a negative economic catalyst, he promised to exercise “zero tolerance” on the practice as a way to restore the nation’s moral fiber and credibility.

He thanked the University of St Thomas for awarding him the honorary doctors of laws degree and said he was convinced that this was a gift for all Tanzanians and he accepted it on their behalf. He said the University of St. Thomas had started a life long relationship with Tanzania, a matter he highly cherished and would be proud to visit it again.

Books for Africa completed its move to a new spacious warehouse in Saint Paul’s East side today with the official opening of the facility by Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr. Cyril August Chami. He is part of the delegation accompanying President Jakaya Kikwete to the Twin Cities. The president arrived here earlier today from New York where he has been attending the United Nations general assembly.

More than 100 supporters, volunteers and corporate sponsors attended the official opening.

The new warehouse is located in the old Stroh’s brewery complex which was shut down in 1997. The neighborhood is referred to as the Phalen corridor to reflect the community reinvestment effort that has taken place in the last ten years after years of economic decline. Public records indicate to date $570 million has been reinvested along the corridor.

Books for Africa executive director, Mr. Patrick Plonski, said with over 14 million books shipped since its founding in 1988, the need for more space was imperative. In addition to more space, the new quarters are volunteer friendly than the old downtown Saint Paul location. Volunteers do the bulk of the sorting and packing of books that are dropped off by the public at the warehouse.

Dr. Chami thanked Books for Africa for the work it is doing and said the books go a long way in boosting literacy in his country. He invoked biblical teachings to demonstrate how dear Books for Africa is to his people. He said the organization’s work reminds him of that verse in the bible which says “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in”, he said. He was referring to chapter 25 in the book of Matthew.

Ambassador Andrew Daraja, Tanzania’s ambassador to the US also underscored the importance of Books for Africa by reminding the audience it was one of his first stops when he was appointed to Washington. The ambassador holds concurrent accreditation to Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela.

To mark the grand opening, Books for Africa will be shipping two 40-foot containers of textbooks equating to about 70,000 textbooks to Tanzania. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and St. John’s Abbey, a monastic community located in Collegeville, Minnesota each are sponsoring additional containers to go to Tanzania.  Minneapolis based Cargill, the world’s largest privately held corporation, also sponsored a half container to go to Tanzania. Preferred Adventures of Saint Paul stepped in at the grand opening to make the container whole. 

The Michigan based Andrah foundation is also sponsoring a container to Tanzania. The foundation’s cofounder, Ruth Knoll, narrated an experience she had while visiting Tanzania. A school that was in need of books needed them right away but in her mind she was thinking of a two year process “I called the embassy (Tanzanian) and they told me about Books for Africa”, she said. She added Books for Africa simplified the process for her to a matter of days.

Also announced at the grand opening of its new warehouse was a new partnership between Books for Africa and USAID. In USAID’s Africa Education Initiative (AEI), Books for Africa will be shipping 16 containers of textbooks valued at $2.7 million to seven countries. The AEI is a $600 million multi-year initiative by the Bush administration that “supports training of new teachers and provides more textbooks and scholarships for children throughout Africa,” according to information on the USAID website.

Visit Mshale’s gallery for pictures from the event.
 

Mr. Izooba Mugabi is the new chairman of the Uganda Association of Minnesota (UGAMN). He emerged the winner after easily trouncing his only challenger, Mr. Francis Ssenoga, by garnering over 64% of the votes cast during a general assembly meeting to elect new leaders. All seats were up for grabs. Mr. Ssenoga is the current secretary general of the Uganda North America Association (UNAA). UNAA is the national association for Ugandans in North America.

Over 100 people packed into a classroom at the Brooklyn Park community center today to listen to the plea for votes from the contestants before voting got underway.  Outgoing chairman, Mr. Peter Mudima, reading from a sheet given to him by the randomly selected election officers said a total of 109 people participated in the elections.

The closest race was that of vice chairman where Mr. Victor Lukandwa, a software engineer, staved off a challenge from Ms. Allen Kiberu to emerge the winner. He garnered 65 votes to Ms. Kiberu’s 45. Ms. Kiberu was the only woman who offered herself for any of the seats and there was a noticeable disappointment in the hall when she did not prevail.

The race that provided some comic relief for members was that of treasurer where the two candidates, Mr. John Mutyaba and Mr. John  Kiiza did not shy away from addressing each directly as they offered their differing approaches to the treasurer’s post.

Mr. Mutyaba, a certified public accountant and a senior insurance systems audit manager with the state of Minnesota was unable to win favor with the electorate with his promise of upgrading the accounting system. Instead, the members clicked more with Mr. Kiiza, a Registered Nurse who works in intensive care at a local hospital. They handed him a lopsided 62% of the vote. Talking to this reporter after being declared the winner, he said while he is not technologically savvy, he is supportive of establishing an electronic database of all members in an effort to provide better services and accountability.

Rounding up the cast of new leaders is the new secretary-general, Mr. Conrad Nviri who easily whipped a late entrant to the race, Mr. Peter Musimami. Mr. Nviri received 63% of the votes cast for treasurer.

Mr. Izooba, in an interview following his victory said it is a new day for Ugandans in the state “as they will see results”, he said. During his campaign, he had said his main focus will be on building a strong UGAMN before spending any energy on the national body (UNAA). Mr. Izooba, who is also CEO of Kampala Wire, a startup money transfer company, had said earlier that he would recommend all committees within UGAMN have representation from all age groups which will foster the formation of a common vision among the many generations of Ugandans here. This will also help in the design of appropriate community events that everyone can enjoy, he claimed.

A common thread running through all the candidates’ speeches, was the general feeling that Ugandans in Minnesota have not maximized their full potential, and have yet to organize effectively as other African communities in taking advantages of the opportunities and resources at their disposal. The new leadership will serve for two years.

Meanwhile UGAMN will hold its annual Independence Day gala and dinner to celebrate Uganda’s 44th year of independence. This year’s gala will also serve as a fundraiser for Gulu Walk. Gulu Walk is an initiative aimed at helping those in Northern Uganda especially the children affected by the civil war that has raged in that region. Gulu is a region in Northern Uganda.

Visit the Gallery section of our website for more pictures from the elections.