Kenya connection

The energy in the room was palpable Friday in downtown Aurora. 
The vision for meaningful change on the jobs front seemed clear, from both sides of the table, and the desire to take an on-going conversation from concepts to collaboration and on to mutually beneficial change is sincere and very real. 
Though a majority of local residents may not yet be aware of the serious tone of negotiations taking place between Nebraska and the Kenya State Department for Diaspora Affairs, it’s time to take notice. A delegation from Kenya spent time in Aurora Friday, as part of a three-day visit to Nebraska and a two-week tour of potential partnership sites throughout the United States and Germany. This tour came on the heels of a trade delegation to Kenya in February, led by Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, thus the Big Red’s momentum is clearly building.
A story on the front page of this week’s ANR reports that the end result of last week’s visit is an agreement to formalize a memorandum of understanding between the Foreign Ministry of Kenya and AjiraAmerica. Those talks are well beyond friendly visits at this point, which was poignantly clear at Friday’s two-hour meeting at IWS.
For those reading those last few paragraphs who feel out of the loop, you are likely not alone. AjiraAmerica is a new entity, formed just a few months ago by three area companies, all of which share a vision for helping highly educated Kenyans fill jobs here in Nebraska. Todd Vettel, who represents International Workforce Services in Aurora, has talked openly about the “silver tsunami” statistically assured to hit America, referring to a massive workforce shortage expected as Baby Boomers enter retirement mode. IWS has trained more than 200 people from all over the world over the last two years to become truck drivers here in America, proof positive that the company has identified a need and created a plan with a program to address it.
Laban Njuguna, a native of Kenya who has called Aurora home for more than 20 years, owns and operates Zabuni Coffee with his wife in Grand Island, as well as Sycamore Investments. The third partner is Deen Albert with America Bound, based in Grand Island. Roseline Njogu, Kenya’s principal secretary with the State Department for Diaspora Affairs, shed light on just how serious her country is about this local connection when she said someone like Njuguna tends to “be the glue, or the bridge makers between two societies. It might not have been possible,” she added, “for us to have had as engaging or as deep of conversations that we’ve had in the days that we’ve been here if we did not have one of our own, so to speak, already here saying: ‘I understand Kenya, I understand Nebraska and I want to bring my two homes together.”’
That critical connection, and the broader foundation now being established with AjiraAmerica, suggests that Aurora and Hamilton County could very well end up being a new generation’s Ellis Island, a landing spot for talented and eager workers from Kenya and beyond looking for opportunity here in America, if not specifically Nebraska.
From a third-party perspective, it appears as though the stars may in fact be aligning for a global workforce initiative based, on one end, right here in Hamilton County. Make no mistake, this is a very big deal, a possible paradigm shift designed to address growing needs on both sides of the world.
-- Kurt Johnson