DIASPORA NEWS

Kenyans living and working abroad sent home $228.9 million (Sh24 billion) in March 2020, according to the latest data by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).  This represents a four percent growth compared with $218.9 million (Sh23 billion) remitted in the previous month—February. The slight…

Dr. Benson Edagwa, a Kenyan-born US researcher, is among researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre (UNMC) who have developed a new anti-retroviral (ARV) drug. Edagwa, an assistant professor at the UNMC Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience led the team in…

At least 18 Kenyans have died of Covid-19 abroad, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Amb. Macharia Kamau has said. Macharia, who spoke during an interview with a local radio station on Tuesday, April 28th, said a majority of the deaths were reported in the United States. The US is the most…

Over 500 Kenyan nationals stranded abroad in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic are set to be evacuated at their own cost. Speaking on Tuesday, April 28th, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Amb. Macharia Kamau said the group will fly back to the country next week on Kenya Airways flights. Out of…

Money sent home by Kenyans in the diaspora is expected to drop considerably in 2020 due to the global outbreak of Covid-19. The World Bank projects a global decline in remittances by about 20 percent citing the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, which continues to wreak havoc across the world…

The family of a 47-year-old Kenyan woman who died in Iraq last December has been forced to bury a banana stem after they were unable to bring back her body. Ruth Omungala from Ingusi village in Mumias, Kakamega County passed away in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad on December 26th, 2019. Ms. Omungala,…

A Kenyan national has died of coronavirus in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to reports. This was announced by Mohamed Wehliye, a Kenyan who works as an advisor to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA). Wehliye, through Twitter on Saturday, April 25th, said Kenyan ambassador to Saudi…

A Kenya Airways (KQ) flight that was scheduled to fly Kenyans in the United Kingdom back home on Saturday, April 25th has been canceled.  The Kenyan High Commission in London, in a statement on Friday, said the cancellation of the flight was due to Kenya’s strict guidelines on Covid-19.…

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo says the government cannot afford to evacuate all Kenyans seeking to return home from abroad in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Omamo, in an interview with KBC on Friday, said the government can only arrange for a flight to fly back those stuck…

Kenyan nationals seeking to leave China amid the coronavirus pandemic will have to pay Sh80,468 for a one-way flight ticket to Nairobi, the Kenyan embassy in Beijing has said. The flight will leave Guangzhou for the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi on Friday, May 1st and those…