 "Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint meeting of the US Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, on June 8, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)")
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded the final leg of his five nation, six days foreign visit with a stopover in Mexico, an online registration portal has been launched by the Indian diaspora in Kenya to ask its members to register for an address by Modi to the diaspora in Nairobi on July 10.
The PM is scheduled to visit Africa in the first half of July. It will be the first visit of his tenure to mainland Africa. Modi is scheduled to visit Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya.
Kenya is also likely to be the only country during his visit to Africa where the PM is slated to address a large gathering of Indians. The Kenya event has been finalised, while a smaller diaspora event is being worked out for his South Africa leg.
The 'Karibu Kenya Modiji Planning and Coordination Committee' has launched a portal for people to register for access to the venue in Kenya where the PM is expected to address the Indian diaspora. The deadline for registration is June 18. The committee is headed by Ramjibhai Patel. Committee member Manu Chandaria appealed to the Indian community to register themselves and motivate at least 10 of their friends and relatives as well. “Let our numbers show our strength,” Chandaria said.
The BJP's overseas arm is more certain of a successful event in Kenya given that the Indian diaspora, which includes a significant number of Gujaratis, continues to have strong links with India. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), there are 80,000 people of Indian origin in Kenya, including 20,000 Indian nationals. Indians went to Kenya in the 1950s.
In comparison, the South African-Indian origin community is more sizeable, numbering 1.5 million, about 3% of South Africa's population. Unlike the Indian diaspora in Kenya, the South African-Indian origin community has tenuous links with the country of their ancestors. They have found good representation in South Africa's governance structures and are zealous about their South African identity.
The MEA website states that the major part of the Indian origin community reached South Africa from 1860 onwards to serve as field hands and mill operatives in the plantations in Natal. Most of these initial migrants were from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and some from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. A second wave of Indians came around 1880. These were the "passenger Indians", called such because they paid their fares as passengers on board a steamship bound for South Africa. These were Hindu and Muslim traders from Gujarat.
The ‘Karibu Kenya Modiji Organising Committee’ says it is an organisation promoting Kenya-India relations for communities, by communities. The committee “pays tribute to the deep ties between India and Kenya, highlighting the formidable contribution made by members of the Indian diaspora in all walks of life in Kenya.”
The Indian diaspora in Kenya is diverse and there are several associations representing different communities, which run places of worship and schools. The July 10 Modi speech has been billed as Nairobi's Diwali event of this year.
