Money, lobbying, legitimacy: Why Kenyan politicians are flying to the U.S ahead of 2027 polls

Very many people want to go to America. Yes, I said it. According to the Immigration to the data, the United States has the largest immigrant population in the world in total numbers.

More than 50 million people living in the U.S were born in another country, with immigrants making up about 15% of the total population.

Before you start fighting in the comment section, it’s clear that many believe a trip to the Land of the Free and the Land of the Brave will help them live the much-fabled American dream.

But as the 2027 General Election nears, Kenyan political bigwigs have started their pilgrimage to America; it is not just the "normal mwananchi" who is facing West.

Top-level Kenyan politicians have, for years, made the sojourn to the U.S whenever the General Election beckons, looking for three things: legitimacy, lobbying, and most of all, money.

America projects herself as the leader when it comes to everything: money, war, culture and politics, and many nations and people yearn to be seen as close to her.

So, politically, any leader worth his/her salt tries to use America to build international and local legitimacy by projecting the image of a globally respected statesman rather than just a regional politician.

They announce their visit the moment their Visa request is approved and make a lot of hullabaloo about their "upcoming" trip.

Wherever their feet touch the ground, their teams broadcast the pictures and videos across all their platforms, woo local media back home to air their visit so that friends and foes can see they are not a local rat.

The money factor: Kenyans living in the US, according to a report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), remitted approximately Ksh.405.4 billion ($3.1 billion) to Kenya in the year ending May 2025.

Campaigning requires a lot of money, so targeting the single largest source of foreign remittances to Kenya, accounting for roughly 43.5% to 57% of all total inflows depending on the specific survey period, is a no-brainer.

Lobbying: Kenyan politicians also seek to hire elite Washington lobbying firms ahead of elections to manage their image and message internationally, link them with top US decision-makers and help them handle their local strategy.

As usual, the Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) boss and former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is leading the way.

Riggy G, as he is nicknamed, is currently on a heavily promoted tour to both unwind and hold discussions with Kenyans living in the Western powerhouse. He was also in America last year.

Gachagua has not shied away from showing the pompous lifestyle he is affording while in the U.S. as he moves across different States — black SUV convoys and brawny security personnel armed to the teeth — a move to assert dominance and prominence in a foreign nation and impress his friends and foes back home.

Next in the queue to the United States is United Green Movement party leader and former Chief Justice David Maraga, who just announced he is set to jet out to the U.S for a 3-week visit to engage with supporters.

Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka also made his pilgrimage to the U.S alongside his delegation to woo diaspora voters.

There are unconfirmed reports that a "top leader" from the Linda Mwananchi faction is getting ready for the American trip.

It was reported that the Edwin Sifuna-led faction has registered with the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as it's preparing to send one of its leaders to America.

FARA is a United States federal law passed in 1938 that requires people who do political or advocacy work for foreign governments or groups to register with the government.

With over three million Kenyans living abroad, Kenya's recorded formal diaspora remittances reached a record US$5.04 billion (approximately Ksh.650.16 billion) in 2024, according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

This pattern of leaders facing and visiting the West is not new to Kenyan political culture in the run-up to a national election.

Before the 2022 elections, then-presidential candidates William Ruto and Raila Odinga crisscrossed the US and UK, appearing at institutions such as Chatham House and holding town hall meetings with Kenyans abroad.

The mission to build a credible and likeable portfolio is not only abroad, as back home leaders are maintaining precision in how they prop up their public image.