Kenyans concerned over threat of embassy closure
Kenyans in Ireland have urged their home government not to shut down the country’s embassy in Dublin’s Ballsbridge.
It follows a recommendation by Kenya’s parliamentary committee on defence and foreign relations urging the government to close the embassy on Elgin Road because it has no “significant diplomatic and economic” benefit.
Kenyan MPs argued that Ireland has lost its position as a “lucrative political or economic hub” and cannot offer much to the east African country.
Instead, the committee recommended reallocating resources from the Dublin mission towards opening a consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which currently hosts many Kenyan migrant workers – many of which are reportedly being badly treated.
However, Kenyans in Ireland have expressed their surprise and displeasure at the move to Metro Éireann.
“We are against it totally,” said Stephen Ng’ang’a, a Kenyan student who has lived in Dublin for five years. “We need the [Kenyan] government to protect the embassy.”
Ng’ang’a said he believes it makes strong economic sense to keep the embassy in light of Kenya’s development as the “IT hub of Africa”.
Others have pointed out the strengthening of trade and tourism links between Ireland and Kenya since the embassy’s opening in 2007.
Conall O’Caoimh – director of Value Added Africa, which promotes the export of Kenyan goods to Ireland – said Kenya has “an opportunity to do well with an embassy in Ireland”.
According to O’Caoimh, official Kenyan export figures have grown by 49 per cent since links were established. Last year the embassy reported on its website that Kenya’s bilateral trade has increased and was estimated at €40 million.
Salome Mbugua, director of migrant women’s network AkiDwa, said the embassy is of significant importance to the country and to her fellow Kenyans in Ireland.
“There is so much foundation work that has been done and the benefits would be coming out of it soon,” she said. “It would be a very big mistake if the [Kenyan] government were to close the embassy.
She echoed O’Caoimh’s comments that tourism has been on the increase and noted that “Kenya is now the second [most popular] destination in Africa from Ireland”.
Mbugua also stressed that Kenya has the “potential to gain more from Ireland”, and by extension Europe, due to its strategic location.
She gave as example said the Irish Government’s recently launched agricultural investment programme aimed at supporting the development of much needed partnerships between the agri-food sectors in Ireland and the countries of Africa.
Tanzania and Kenya are the two nations selected for the two-year pilot phase of the €2m Africa Agri-Food Development Fund.
Mbugua added that maiden Ambassador Catherine Mwangi has done well for the country and that people have very high regard for her.
The Kenyan Embassy had not issued any comment on the issue at press time.
