Personally, I see no route back to Kenya. I’ve been here since college and it’s been a decade already. Whenever I go back to Kenya year by year, things feel very different in a very unfamiliar way. I’m just out of touch with the Kenya way of life. I knew my time is up when I started missing being back home in New York. That’s when I knew I’m too far gone. Even family members started to appear different (they had changed and move on to their own things).
Kenya nowadays is just a place for me to visit. It’s strange because I always feel lost when I’m in Nairobi (where do I go? What do I do? Where’s this and that?). In America, I know where everything is and the right reaction to every sort of situation.
My advice for the new diasporans like @DukeOfKabeteshire is to figure out WHERE THEY WANT TO BE. Make a decision as early as you can. If your end goal in Kenya, start setting up a foundation for your return (assets…businesses etc etc). If you wanna stay in America or wherever you are, start climbing the ladder (save for a house, upskill and get a better job, invest in the market, spin off a business or two etc etc).
My single most important advice is don’t try to be in two places at once. It’s a trap. I see people trying to invest in Kenya and still build a life here but it ends up in tears or unrealized potential. You’ll only be half successful in both places. I’ll take being fully successful in one location over half-assing two locations. It’s just how I roll.
Lakini kila mtu na starehe zake. Mimi nikikufa narushwa kwa graveyard in the outer boroughs. I’m okay with that.