7 November 2006. Kenya has been blessed with a sub tropical climate all year around that makes the country an ideal destination for tourists, investors, holders of international conferences and foreign long term residence. Thus Kenia is a tourist attraction. As much as we are placed under the category of developing countries, I see we are not that badly off according to my opinion because we managed to have this years budget read without the inclusive of donor funding.
I am not saying that we can survive on our own without donor funding, no! We need it especially in the slums areas where it helps uplifts the standard of people living there.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have always been supportive of Kenya when it comes to lending money and sponsoring various projects like the slum upgrading, building of toilets and boreholes. This has been seen in the Kibera slums, Mathare slums and in the Northeastern areas of Kenya.

Clips of Kibera slums

What amazes me is the way people think of Kenya, just because we are being given aid to assist us in one way or the other. Or clips of Kibera slums and other bad areas of our country that are yet to develop are shown in the international news, most people out there tend to think all Kenyans are poor and cant afford most of the things or that good lifestyle.
I agree we cannot compare ourselves with other countries like the US and UK they are far more developed than us, but we are on the race towards a better Kenya.

From nowhere to somewhere

I believe we all start from nowhere to somewhere, I pray one day the society out there will stop judging an individual Kenyan on the basis of what they see or hear when they visit our country. This is because most of the tourists visiting our country only go to the slums (especially Kibera), not that its bad, but they portray it in a bad way as much as its not a better place.
Yes, I agree we don"t have better sanitation and housing systems in the slums, this is because of the population and the high rate of unemployment, which leads to most people settling there because it is cheap and affordable for a common "Mwananchi" who is trying to survive.

'Expensive'

Florence Muthoni who visited the European countries two months ago told me she didn"t like the perception most people have of Kenya. She wanted to go for shopping and shop just like most ladies like to do, especially if you are on a tour you would like to get yourself a souvenir.
She expected the friends she had met their to take her to the shops and show her the best, but unfortunately that was not the case. They went ahead and started telling her the way shops are expensive there and she cant afford.
Muthoni was surprised and wanted to find out what is "expensive" to her surprise the prices were almost like just home, later on is when she came to realise that they thought she couldn"t afford because she is from Kenya and Kenyans are poor.
She hated this kind of stereotyping, because not all Kenyans are poor, we have poor, the working poor, middle class and so on, guess this will be topic for another day to discuss the financial ranks in Kenya.

Hope

On the other side Kenyans too are to blame, I think we air too much of our dirty line in public that at times we are misunderstood. Every little problem that happens in Kenya is known worldwide within a short period of time.
We should stop to talk and let the talk be of solutions and the glorifying of our country Kenya, despite the poverty, unemployment and politics of our country.
My hope is that countries out there should start looking at Kenya in a different way, apart from the visits to slums they can take a look at our wildlife, theatres which have very nice movies and our African shops. The list is endless.