By a show of hands, how many Kenyans would suspect that Najib Balala, the former long-serving Cabinet Secretary, is not Kenyan by birth?
Yet, the Star on December 11 flippantly tossed a grenade with a story headed, “Najib Balala visits his ancestral land for the first time in 17 years.”
The intro said unequivocally: “Former Tourism CS Najib Balala has visited his country of birth for the first time in 17 years.”
Citzen Digital and Tuko.co.ke told the same story, the same day, except for the part that Balala was not born in Kenya.
But Citizen’s story by Moses Kinyanjui qualified that “Balala was born in Mombasa in 1967, and up until this point, he has resided there. Curiously, Tuko’s story by Jackson Otukho wrote the same, practically word for word.
Neither attributed their source.
Where did all get this story? From a December 11 tweet with pictures by Balala, which said in part: “Travelled to Seiyun – Republic of Yemen – to visit my ancestral land after 17 years to see family and friends.”
Let us focus on the grenade tossed by the Star in their story by Laura Shatuma.
Balala is not Kenyan by birth? This is huge news. How could this be flippantly dropped as an appendage, a by the way?
If correct, why would this be big news?
Because Balala is a public figure who from 2003 to 2022 was at various times a Cabinet Secretary in six ministries, under the administrations of two presidents, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta. And nobody seems to have stumbled on this little thing that Balala may have been born in Yemen!
Article 78 of the Constitution forbids a non-Kenyan from holding a state office. Clause 2 of this article says in part that a state officer shall not hold dual citizenship.
Is Balala a dual citizen? Was everyone asleep for 20 years when Balala was mostly serving in the Cabinet?
Parliament in 2019 vetoed President Kenyatta’s appointment of US-born Mwende Mwinzi as Kenyan ambassador to South Korea, before a High Court judge ruled that Mwinzi could not be compelled to renounce her American citizenship.
Why was Parliament kicking a storm in Mwinzi’s matter, when Balala, if he is a dual citizen, was serving in Cabinet? Why did the state deport Miguna Miguna to Canada, if the same state knew that Balala was a foreign-born national running affairs of state?
All three publications, the Star, Citizen and Tuko should have asked these questions. Then, they should have told a deeper story – not parroted Balala’s tweet.
Well, perhaps there is a simpler explanation to all of this. The Star may have just grossly misinterpreted Balala’s “ancestral land” to mean “land of birth.” Barack Obama’s ancestral land is Kenya. But the former US President was born in Hawaii, USA.
Still, what are the facts? Where was Balala born? Suddenly, this is an open question. Even Wikipedia does not know. The open source website that anybody can edit only lists Balala’s birth date, 1967, and that he attended Serani Boys Primary School in Mombasa before going to Kakamega High School.
But if you ask Google, where was Najib Balala born, it spits out Mombasa, citing Wikiwand, a software interface for viewing Wikipedia articles.
Could somebody please ask Balala where he was born?
