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http://www.eastandard.net/eahome/story310720010014.htm




Kenyans' Meeting with Mayor Lastman of Toronto - July 26, 2001
By Matunda Nyanchama

President of KCA  & member of Kenyan Community in Ontario (KCO)

Toronto, Canada, July 27, 2001



"What the hell do I want to go to a place like Mombasa.  Snakes just scare
the hell out of me.  I'm sort of scared about going there, but the wife is
really nervous.  I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these
natives dancing around me."

- Mayor Lastman of Toronto while headed for Mombsasa, Kenya, to make a pitch
for the Toronto bid for the Olympics, as quoted in the Toronto Star



A delegation from the Kenyan Community in Ontario (KCO) met with the Toronto
Mayor, Lastman, on July 26, 2001 regarding the above remarks. The meeting
sought ways of understanding the underlying reasons of the remarks and ways
to forestall such a thing happening in the future. I was part of that
delegation which included Prof. Njoki Wane, Leonard Wandili, Wambui
Gathenya, Mzee Mohamoud, Herold Oluoch, Jedida Mukongola, Joyce Misoi and
her husband Momoh. Joyce read the key message to the mayor.



We noted that the mayor had apologized several times; we were not there to
seek further apologies, through. We accept the mayor apology and believe
that he was sincere in making the apology.



Further, we observed that there had been a number of demonstrations
castigating the mayor's remarks, something we understood and empathized
with. Others had called for the mayor's resignation, a call we do not
support.



We hold the position that the mayor's remarks were due to ignorance about
Africa, and think that this ignorance is pervasive in Toronto and Canada at
large. As such, we must address this ignorance in order to bridge the
information gap about Africa for the people of Toronto in particular and
Canada in general.



Our message and proposals to the mayor are intended to address this
ignorance. Subsequently, we seek to create a better understanding between
Canadians and Africans, both in Africa and the Diaspora.



Mayor Lastman listened with clear attention and later made remarks about the
beauty of Mombasa, the tolerable weather of the Kenyan Coast, the warmth of
the people and the wonderful food served. The mayor's wife, who dropped by
while the meeting was in progress, remarked that they had a wonderful time
and experience in Mombasa.  Both underlined the lessons they had learnt from
their visit to Kenya and how much better they now are as individuals and
public personalities.



Our delegation sought three key issues to be implemented by the city, all
aimed at fostering better relations with Kenyans, in particular, and
Africans in general.



-          We asked that the city to take deliberate steps to reach out to
Kenyans in Toronto and support us in our struggle to express ourselves,
display our culture and educate Canadians about who we are and our values as
Africans. This will entail the support of Kenyan-related cultural activities
and education programmes about Kenya and Africa. The eventual aim is to
create a Kenyan centre that will be responsible for these activities under
the auspices of KCO.



-          We sought the city to seek out and appoint Kenyans and Africans
to positions in city hall and its instruments of government. This, we
believe, will help create a government reflective of city's composition. The
resulting interaction will help demystify some of the myths about Africa
held by Canadians.



-          We sought that the city makes a twinning arrangement with a
Kenyan city to facilitate exchanges between the two cities and enable the
creation of mutually beneficial opportunities in business, tourism, culture
and sports. This proposition will give offer chances both for Kenyans and
Canadians to be exposed to the realities of Africa and Canada. It will also
help see those positive images and values that are Africa's contribution to
the global mosaic.



The mayor's response was most encouraging and, in effect, threw a challenge
to us Kenyans to play a bigger role in Toronto. The mayor agreed to explore
options along all the three proposals. Specifically:



-          The mayor asked the commissioner of parks, recreation and
development to find ways to accommodate Kenyans' need for building space
which will be a meeting place, resource centre and "home" for the Kenyan
Community in Ontario. Future developments will seek permanent space in which
Kenyans will run programmes pertaining to Africa and act as a resource
centre for Africa-related matters, as seen from a Kenyan perspective. A key
proponent of the meeting, architect of many of the suggestion and member of
KCO, Joyce Misoi, will follow up with the commissioner and the mayor's Chief
of Staff to determine concrete measures to actualize the agreement.



-          KCO will be kept informed of openings in the city government
whenever they occur. The process of appointment was explained and the mayor
indicated that the power of appointments does not solely lie with his
office. He challenged to to ensure that when such vacancies were available,
we should work to get the right candidates from the community to compete for
the jobs.





-          There was promise to follow up on the city twinning suggestion,
although the mayor expressed concerns about potential difficulties of
actualizing this. One concern was that the present city is an amalgamation
of several cities each of which had its own twinning arrangements. However,
it was noted that hardly any of them were African cities. We were asked what
Kenyan city we would propose and suggested that Mombasa may be the most
appropriate. This being a matter of diplomacy, however, we shall pass the
information to the Kenyan Embassy in Ottawa to make a follow up.



With the above, we felt that we had made great progress in entrenching the
Kenyan Community in the city of Toronto. We believe that it is the right way
to go forward and that the agreements will serve all that live in this
wonderful city of Toronto.



Finally, as a means of mending fences and healing, a suggestion was made
that members of KCO appear on a call-in radio show to explain exactly how
we, as the affected people felt and the solution we need to move forward.



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