Why we relocated to Kenya after decades in the US

And for 13 years, he built a good life for himself, one that many Kenyans would trade their lives here for.

“I applied and won a Greencard and got to America as a permanent resident,” he says. “I joined the military within the first five months, worked as an automotive technician (mechanic) and was granted citizenship a few months later.”

After four years in the military, he enrolled in the university for a degree in cybersecurity and afterwards used it to secure a job to sustain him in the land that had taken him as its own. He has gone in with nothing but dreams and ambitions, but managed to acquire an indisputable immigration status, a solid career, a son, and even a wife.

So, what brought him back?

“My wife, who is also Kenyan, wanted to come back home,” Mr Gitau says. “I didn’t understand why at first.”

This was in 2019.

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Over time, he became open to the idea enough for them to start exploring investment opportunities in Kenya and make a few visits. But it was not until 2021, when they moved from California to Texas, that he fully embraced the idea.

“It was around the Covid phase,” he recounts. “We were all working from home, and I hadn’t really made friends since it was a new environment, and I found myself in isolation for quite some time.”

The money was coming in, he says, but America was no longer the America he met. Inflation meant that while one made a lot of money, they also spent a lot. This dynamic made it so that both he and his wife had to keep working,  which put a strain on their marriage.

“We had to sit down and think about where our priorities lay,” he says.

By the end of 2023, the decision was made. In September 2024, Mr Gitau and his wife packed up their belongings and carried their lives back to the land that birthed them.

“To date, some of my family members still don’t understand why I came back,” says the 40-year-old businessman.

“But I always say, what matters is the stage you are at in life and what you care most about. If you are in your 20s or 30s with little or no ties and you want to make money, it could be a life-changing opportunity. But it’s different when money is not the primary driver in your life. You start to realise that nothing is free. You might have the money, but what of your social life or your health.”

Easing the transition

Their transition, Mr Gitau says, was eased by the three months they spent in Kenya, prior to their move. Not only did it help them be sure about the step they were planning to take, but it also gave them the chance to visit different areas and determine where they would want to settle.

Today they live in Kamulu, on the eastern outskirts of Nairobi, along Kangundo Road. This is where most of their family also resides. They have invested in real estate properties. However, they plan to build their dream home in Ngong, which neighbours areas such as Karen, Ongata Rongai and Kiserian.

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When they were relocating to Kenya, they packed most of their household goods and shipped them by sea. Mr Gitau, however, had to give up his hunting rifle and sell their cars.

“If you buy a similar vehicle to the model you had abroad, you get a returning resident exemption on the import tax that makes things easier,” he advises while advocating for importing a car rather than buying one in Kenya.

Logistically, one of the major hurdles they faced was the lack of efficient delivery systems. He also warns about electronics. “In America, they use a power voltage of 110 volts, while Kenya uses one of 240 volts,” he notes. “This means that if you want to carry over electronics, you will need to get a step-down transformer as well.”

Certain that they didn’t want to come and be employed, Mr Gitau and his wife decided to start their own real estate and property management agency, Jambo Home Ventures.

One thing that surprised him upon returning was the development of Nairobi's Outer Ring Road. “I used to get lost and had to rely on GPS a lot before I finally got used to it,” he says.

He finds it baffling how inefficient the government systems can be.

Another thing that stood out to him was the ease of building and maintaining a social circle in Kenya.

“In America, people are always working, but the system here is built around social aspects. I can reach out to someone at any time and meet them the same day or in two or three days.”

Would he go back to the US?

With no regrets to speak of, Mr Gitau says the only reason he would go back would be to visit his son, but even then, the plan is to always come back to Kenya.

For potential returnees, his advice is to research and have a plan before coming.

“Find where you’d like to stay, somewhere with access to the conveniences you prefer, including schools for your children if you have some, and buy(rather than rent) a house in that vicinity,” he says.

“Have a source of income as well. You can, for example, import goods from China and resell them here. If they are products with demand, you can make good money.”

8 years paying off debts

Rebecca Mujera, 80, went with her husband to the US to attend their daughter’s graduation ceremony. That was in 2004. She ended up staying eight years.

“My husband was retired while I had stopped working. Our children saw it as the perfect opportunity for us to not only be there for their sibling, but also get some vacation time,” Ms Mujera recalls.

“What they didn’t know is that we were strapped for cash after spending all our money on my sick sister, who later passed on.”

But since their children catered for their travel, they agreed to go. At the graduation party, they met one of their daughter’s friends who offered to help them stay and “make some dollars.”

With a collapsed business back at home, a house that had been put up for auction several times, and stalled projects, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. It felt like a God-given solution.

Then, after three years, things at home started falling apart. Ms Mujera says a relative, in whom they had entrusted their properties in their upcountry home, started exploiting and destroying them for selfish gain.

“My husband came back home to sort that out, but since we still had uncleared debts, he asked me to stay behind and keep working,” she says.

And she did, for five more years, working as a nurse. The day she cleared all debt, and collected enough money to complete a rental property they were building and enough to properly send off the relative who had worked but wronged them, she didn’t care to stay a day longer.

“I was homesick, and my body was tired from all the work,” she remembers. So she tied up all ends, put her belongings in a shipping container and came back to the country she had not seen in eight years.

It was a smooth process except for the shipping part.

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“My belongings took about eight months to get here, but even then, I only got half of them,” she says. “My shipping agent stole some of the more valuable items and extorted some money from me before giving me whatever was left.”

Though a lot of her friends didn’t understand her move back, she was firm in her resolve, saying she had accomplished whatever she’d gone there to do. Besides, her husband, children, and grandchildren were all here.

Now, she lives off the proceeds from a tea plantation upcountry, a few dairy cows, a couple of books she has authored, the rental house she built with her late husband, and her children’s support.

Other than having a good plan, doing due diligence, and asking God for wisdom, her advice to those in the diaspora is to maintain trustworthy connections with people back home.

“You need people you can trust, people who can help you to find and execute investment ideas while you’re still abroad,” she says.

She also mentions the difference in working ages between the two countries.

“In America, there is no age limit. You can work even at the age of 80,” she says. “But in Kenya, once you are 60 or 70 years old, employment is out of the question. So, if you are coming back in your later years, the only thing to do is start your own business.”

“I found my purpose”

For Kyalo Maingi, his homecoming is somewhat of an underdog story. Having lived in the US for 23 years, he came back home initially because of a job opportunity that lasted one and a half years, before the organisation filed for bankruptcy.

The project had him living in Nairobi, but presented with the choice to leave or stay, Mr Maingi remembered the land he had purchased before the move to the US, not as an investment, but a burial ground.

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“I caught the Coronavirus four times in 2020, and each time felt like I wouldn’t survive,” he recalls. “I wanted a place, even a small one, where my mum could visit and leave flowers on her son’s grave.”

This simple desire had led him to a land-seller in Makueni, close to Machakos, where he’d been born and raised. Unable to afford a one-time payment for the whole land, he had bought it acre by acre through monthly installments, until he eventually bought the 13 acres he now owns. There, he had built a house, installed solar panels, and dug a borehole, which made the decision to move to Makueni from Nairobi a lot easier.

“It was rent-free, I had free electricity and free water, so it felt very sustainable,” he says. “But it also felt like the right time to finally develop the land.” So he gave up his lease abroad, sold his cars, and passed down some equipment to friends and nephews before moving into the rural community with his partner. Fortunately for him, Makueni was one of the areas where his previous company had done a survey, so he was coming in armed with data. From the paired knowledge of the community’s needs and the inherited desire to farm came Salukya Farms and Salukya Water Company.

Farming in a naturally dry area had its challenges, but with a made-up mind and the support of family and friends, he made it work. The hardest part of the whole process, he says, was ensuring his safety and distinguishing which friends to watch out for. This was after a sour experience he had with a friend he’d trusted to manage his property while he was away.

“This friend had claimed everything as his own and had gone around town beating his chest and making promises to people,” Mr Maingi says. “I lost a lot of money in that situation and almost lost my life and the land as well.”

Experience being a good teacher, his current rule of thumb is better safe than sorry.

“If it costs more than $2,000 (Sh258,000), do it yourself,” he recommends. “Don’t put a lot of weight into having a house before you move. If you have the land, put up an affordable structure and live in it while construction continues. With enough money, you can finish that house in three months.”

Other challenges he has encountered in his relocation include hostile community members (the first borehole he sunk was destroyed on the first day) and the lack of a local market for farm produce. Conversely, though, he has managed to turn these challenges into wins, not just for himself, but for his community at large.

“I found my purpose,” he says. “We are producing food, staying healthy, and with the boreholes we’ve dug, are able to provide free water for ourselves and for at least 1,000 people every day.”

Not a stay-in-one-place kind of guy, Mr Maingi is open to leaving whenever the opportunity presents itself. “I’ll build one place up, and move on to build up the next,” he says.

His additional counsel to returnees is to ensure they have some money coming in, whether or not they have savings, and to avoid having the farming business as the sole source of income.

“Plants can feel stress,” he says. “If you’re there putting pressure on them to grow, they will disappoint you.”

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