President
Barack Obama’s engagement with Kenyans will increase this year with the
expected visit of President Uhuru Kenyatta to Washington DC. However, focus
will turn to the 50 young Kenyan leaders expected to tour the United States
under the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, YALI.
The 50
will have a rare opportunity to learn about what makes the world’s greatest
democracy, tick.
The
flagship programme which will last for six weeks between June and July will
instruct 500 Africans, mainly between the ages of 25 and 35, in the three areas
of Civic Leadership, Public Management and Business and Entrepreneurship.
“We have
received over 2,500 applications and it’s going to be tough whittling them down
to 50 but hopefully we’ll have more slots available next year. Even the folks
in Washington were astounded by the interest YALI has generated,” America’s
Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec told Capital FM News.
Out of
the 500, a select 100 will have the added benefit of an eight week internship
in the USA while the various embassies endeavour to place the remaining 400
locally.
“We’ve reached out to the privates sector and
non-governmental bodies locally to help secure internships and even seed money
for the fellows in the hopes of helping them meet their full potential,” Godec
said.
At the end of the six weeks, all the fellows will have the
opportunity to dine with President Obama in a summit that will be the
culmination of the fellowship.
“This is something President Obama in particular is
passionate about. As you know he is committed to supporting youth and providing
youth with opportunities to support their countries,” Mark Feierstein the
associate administrator at the US Agency for International Development enthused
to Capital FM News.
Obama, who went to Harvard like his father and became the
first black Harvard Law Review president, spent the early years of his career
as a Community Organiser in Chicago before making his first ever trip to Kenya
in search of the heritage his father left him.
The fellowship applicants were therefore required to
demonstrate a history of community and volunteer work.
President Obama announced the initiative in June of 2013 on a
tour of Africa and given his father was a beneficiary of the 1959 Tom Mboya
airlifts, it came as no surprise.
“I had things to learn in law school, things that would help
me bring about real change…That’s the story I had been telling myself, the same
story I imagined my father telling himself 28 years before as he boarded the
plane to America, the land of dreams,” an excerpt from Obama’s book, Dreams
from my Father.
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