We Have Your Interest at Heart, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo Tells Kenyans in the Diaspora

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo says the government cannot afford to evacuate all Kenyans seeking to return home from abroad in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Omamo, in an interview with KBC on Friday, said the government can only arrange for a flight to fly back those stuck in foreign countries but at their own cost.

“We want to meet those that are in distress within the limits of our resources and to try and find solutions that go beyond evacuations.”

“We have to be reasonable, we have to think with our heads and not with our hearts. If we start evacuating people free of charge, others will start demanding the same thing,” noted Omamo.

While responding to calls by Kenyans at home and abroad to evacuate citizens stranded in China for free, Omamo said doing so would be like opening a can of worms.

“It is not feasible or sustainable for our country to pay for people to be evacuated from various destinations. Consider for example we have over 100,000 Kenyans in the Middle East, we have almost a million in America, we have thousands in Europe, we have Kenyans in Australia, we have them in Latin America, we have them all over Africa.”

“If we were to say that we were able to repatriate everyone free of charge it would be impossible for us to sustain,” she added.

She, at the same time, defended the government against claims that it has treated Kenyans in the diaspora with contempt. 

“With regard to the diaspora, I want to say as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have your interest at heart. We are trying to do our very best to try and meet you at the point of your need,” she said.