New Kenyan Ambassador To Seek Closer Ties With Kenyans.

Amb Dr Joseph Sang

The new Kenyan Ambassador to Scandinavia Dr Joseph Sang has said he will aim to engage with Kenyans closely. The Ambassador said this during the memorial/thanksgiving ceremony for the late mzee Kenneth Thugge at the Katolska Kyrka (the Catholic church), Kungsträdgården Stockholm.

At the event which was the second public Kenyan event he has attended so far, Dr Sang said he will “soon arrange to meet several Kenyans in order to plan for a larger meeting with all Kenyans” where he will officially meet them and introduce himself and his working team at the embassy.

The first event was a prayer and fundraising for the victims of the Westgate Mall terrorist attack in Nairobi where over seventy people lost their lives and over two hundred were injured. A total of 5, 150, 00 Swedish kronor, over fifty thousand Kenyan shillings was collected and sent to the Kenya Red Cross Society for the cause.

This occasion was organised by the Kenya embassy in conjunction with Stockholm Kenyans. Over a hundred Kenyans and sympathises attended the service at the St Klara Kyrkan on Friday the 27^th of September. Several members of the Kenyan parliament who were in Sweden at the time also graced the occasion. Candles were lit for the tragically departed Kenyans.

Those involved in the organising of the prayer/fundraiser were Pastor Beatrice Kamau Lundgren, who was the link between the mission and Kenyans, Mr Daniel Mwaura, who also give a speech, Ms Sheila Wangari who acted as the treasurer and also sent the money over to Kenya, among others.

At a more resent meeting at the embassy where the receipts for the transaction were handed over to the embassy for safe keeping, Dr Sang through embassy official William Hiribae, sent his gratitude to Kenyans following the prayers/fundraiser.

The ambassador, if he manages to win Kenyans over, will be breaking the norm after years of constant hostility between the embassy, or rather specifically the former ambassador Mrs Purity Muhindi, and Kenyans in Stockholm.

This is not impossible, as he has already broken the ground running, he reminds and he has been compared to the most social diplomat to ever work at the Kenyan mission, namely the late Mr James Kemboi who relentlessly worked for a better Kenyan community in Sweden. Mr Kemboi died in a tragic fire accident while on official duty in Oslo.

We welcome the ambassador and his well intended and timely move and wish him all the best in his service to Kenyans and the mother land.

P Bryan Njoroge.