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{
    "id": 1562047,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1562047/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 223,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Musalia Mudavadi",
    "speaker_title": "The Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 84,
        "legal_name": "Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi",
        "slug": "musalia-mudavadi"
    },
    "content": "focuses on protecting their rights, engaging them through partnerships, empowering them through job placements and prospering them through investments. We have also developed a diaspora investment strategy. It aims at creating a framework that focuses on attracting diaspora investments, facilitating their engagement in Kenya's economic activities, and ensuring that their contributions are effectively integrated into our development plans. We have also been undertaking various diaspora investment promotions with Kenyans in different countries. We are also contemplating issuing a diaspora bond. The Government is planning to launch a diaspora bond that will enable Kenyans abroad to invest in priority projects back home in areas like infrastructure and housing. This conversation is going on with the National Treasury and institutions like the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank. We have also broadened digital access to Government services. The Government has digitised over 16,000 public services accessible via the e-Citizen platform. They include property registration and verification, business registration, tax return filing and many more that the diaspora can easily access and monitor their investments back home. There is also the aspect of dual citizenship. In recognising the importance of identity and investment, the Government has made it easier to regain citizenship for Kenyans who lost citizenship after acquiring other nationalities. This has encouraged greater economic participation. On matters of the global labour market, the Department aims at enhancing employment opportunities for Kenyans abroad while safeguarding their rights and welfare. It also aims at aligning skills of Kenyan workers with global labour market demands by ensuring that they meet international standards. The approach not only creates employment but also leverages the diaspora’s contribution to Kenya's socio-economic growth by fostering knowledge, skills and technology. We also have the Diaspora Placement Agency created in 2023 to focus on supporting Kenyans seeking jobs out there. We are engaging in a diaspora exchange programme that offers short-term assignments for diaspora professionals in Kenya through Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions. It focuses on transferring digital skills in areas like software development and data science. We also have the Konza Technopolis. It contributes to skills and expertise in this area. We have been going to an area where we even have nomadic visas to allow Kenyans working in different areas to work from different countries and earn a living. Finally, what are the strategies in place to establish a streamlined integration process for Kenyans born abroad, guaranteeing them equal rights and legal protection and access to national systems like other citizens? We have reviewed the Kenya Diaspora Policy, 2024. In this policy framework, we want to guarantee the protection of welfare, rights, continuous engagement and empowerment of Kenyans in the diaspora to realise their prosperity. This is in line with the Government's constitutional mandate to protect citizens, whether within Kenya or abroad. I have already talked to the dual citizenship aspect. There is also continuous inclusive national engagement. Whenever, we have state visits or critical visits from Kenyan Government officials, we have more or less made it a tradition to encourage Kenyans’ diaspora engagements. We are also working on career and economic integration. This is spelled out in our policy so that we broaden and facilitate integration of the Kenyan workforce and education institutions to enhance skills and technology transfer. I have also talked about the modular consular services and the enhancement of use of technology to move forward. As you are also aware, we have been progressively facilitating Kenyans abroad to also exercise their democratic right of voting when the election cycle is due. Thank you. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}