The National Mall in Washington, DC, with the Washington Monument in the
background. Kenyan musicians paralysed crowd-pulling sessions at the
ongoing Smithsonian Folklore Festival in Washington to protest an
alleged breach of contract by the Ministry of Sports, Culture and the
Arts. PHOTO/FILE
Kenya has suffered bad publicity in
recent times due to insecurity arising from frequent terror attacks
perpetrated by Al-Shabaab.
Consequently, several
Western nations have issued travel advisories leading to massive
cancellation of business travels to the country.
As a
result, the government set out last week to mount a marketing campaign
in the US and other Western capitals to convince the world that ours was
not a lost cause and that Kenya still stood out as a major business
destination in the region.
The campaign involved
participating at an international cultural festival in Washington, DC,
which by all counts has been a crowd-puller.
Unfortunately,
the campaign turned into a fiasco when the cultural ambassadors
comprising musicians and other artists staged a protest for non-payment
of allowances and professional fees.
At a grave moment like this, when the country’s image is battered, nobody wants to hear of such a debacle.
Government
functionaries have explained the hitches that delayed the payments. In
fact, the amounts involved are not massive and one can even fault the
artists for being unpatriotic.
But none of that helps Kenya’s case. Not when the international press has picked up the matter and blown it out of proportion.
Kenya
can do better and deserves better from its international marketers,
including the Cabinet Secretaries and ambassadors charged with the task.
The
lesson is that what one can dismiss as a small hitch may end up
becoming so big it overshadows all the good that has been done.
Let the matter be resolved amicably and those who caused the mess should answer tough questions.
No efforts should be spared to market the country, and that must be done professionally.
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