Dear Immigrant, I went back. Not to stay — to wait. My wife needed a spousal visa, and the process required one of us to be in Kenya while it moved through the system. I had been in America for fifteen years. Fourteen of those years I called myself a Kenyan immigrant in America. This year I was something else — an American in Kenya, or something in between.
What I want to tell you is this: the country you came from is not static. It moved while you were away. Kenya's Gen Z has built a political consciousness in the last two years that I did not leave with. The infrastructure of Nairobi is different — there are expressways now, better connections, more high-rises in what were once open lots. But the cost of living increased faster than any of the infrastructure. The debt crisis that the Finance Bill was trying to address is real. The youth who marched against it were right that the solution being proposed would hurt them. They were also right that the institution was not listening.
You will go back someday. The country you go back to will not be the one you left.