Exporting a Nation: Why Kenya's Best and Brightest Are Leaving
For generations, migration was seen as a personal choice. Some left for adventure, others for education, and a few in pursuit of better opportunities abroad. Today, something more profound is happening in Kenya. Leaving has become an aspiration. Ask university students what they want after graduation. Ask young doctors completing their internships. Ask software developers, engineers, lecturers and accountants. Increasingly, the answer is remarkably similar: they want out. The dream is no longer to build a life in Kenya. The dream is to escape it. That should trouble us far more than it does. Because when a country reaches a point where its most educated and ambitious citizens increasingly see their futures elsewhere, it is not merely experiencing migration. It is exporting itself. The Great Kenyan Checkout There is nothing unusual about human mobility. People have moved in search of opportunity for centuries. What is unusual is the scale and normalisation of departure. Today, stories o...
