The organizers of the first Kenyan investment conference held at Kennesaw State University in 2007 at the conclusion of its “Year of Kenya” program are organizing a sequel in what they hope is to be a biennial event.

Almost 1,000 Kenyans attended the first conference, which concluded a full academic year of programs focused on the East African country. The university has focused on a different country each year with a full range of business and cultural programs for the past 25 years.

Most of the attendees from the first conference were East Africans who came to the United States for professional and educational reasons in a movement known as the “Kenyan Diaspora.” The Kenya government seeks to involve these overseas residents in the development of their home country.

“Building a Knowledge-Based Economy in Kenya: The Role of the Kenyan Diaspora” is the title for the upcoming conference that is to be held Aug. 20-22. The conference is to include information and communication technology and investment tracks as well as an expo and career fair.

Kennesaw State’s Institute for Global Initiatives, the Association of Kenya Professionals in Atlanta, Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communication, the Kenya Development Network Consortium and the East African-American Business Council are organizing the conference.

Kenyan government officials, businesspeople and entrepreneurs have been invited to speak including Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary at Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communication.

Dr. Ndemo has been a promoter of Kenya as a center for investment in telecommunications technology enabling the country to provide outsourcing services for international companies.

Esther Koimett, investment secretary and Justus Nyamunga, director of economic affairs, from the Ministry of Finance, also are to speak at the conference.

Among the businesspeople expected to attend are Wahome Gakuru, director of marketing, at the Equity Bank, a microfinance bank with a presence throughout East Africa and Michael Joseph, CEO of Safaricom Ltd., a telecommunications company that currently has more than 14 million subscribers.

David Palella, founder of Carbon Manna Unlimited, a San Diego, Calif., company, is one of several other scheduled speakers. He is an entrepreneur who founded the cell-phone-based Carbon Micro-Profit-Sharing System (CMPSS), which is to enable poor families in the developing world to monetize the value of carbon offsets they produce, for example, by cooking more efficiently or using solar power.

Academics from several of Kenya’s leading universities also are to attend including Olive Mugenda, vice-chancellor of Kenyatta University and Edward Mungai, dean of the business school at Strathmore University.

For more information about the conference, go to http://www.kenyaopen4business.com/ 

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