For years, the narrative of the Kenyan diaspora has been one of departure—of young minds boarding planes in pursuit of better education, jobs, or simply a new beginning. But today, a quiet shift is underway.
More and more Kenyans are choosing to return home, not because they have to, but because they want to. For them, Kenya is no longer a place left behind; it is a place to be built.
The BDLife meet two Kenyans whose journeys abroad shaped them—and whose returns are shaping Kenya.
Dorcas Mbugua: Self-discovery and community impact
At just 19, Dorcas Mbugua left Nairobi for the University of Adelaide, Australia, to pursue a double degree in law and media—a compromise between her creative passions and her parents’ aspirations.
What followed was a 13-year chapter marked by independence, isolation, and self-discovery.
“I thought I was going to this land of endless opportunity,” she says. “And it was—but not in the way I imagined.”
The culture shock hit immediately. The empty streets, the clinical cleanliness, the loneliness.
“When my mum left after two weeks, I wept. I had never been alone before,” Dorcas says.
Even at university, she stood out. “It’s in Australia that I learned I was Black,” she says with a dry chuckle. “People would ask me how I spoke English. If we wore clothes in Kenya.”
She worked part-time cleaning hotel rooms and waiting tables, something she once felt ashamed to share with friends back home.
“But in Australia, those jobs paid well. They gave me flexibility, and dignity,” she says of the menial jobs that earned her Sh3,231 an hour.
She had to cope with the stigma associated with the jobs.“I remember telling my parents I’d gotten a job as a cleaner and they couldn’t understand.”
After graduation, she built a career in law and writing. But deep down, the call of home never faded.
In 2020, just before the pandemic, she returned to Kenya—strategically, with an Australian passport in hand. Today, she lives in Nairobi with her husband (whom she met abroad) and their two children. She now works as a regional student recruiter for an Australian university.
“Raising children in Kenya is a gift,” she says. “We have help, we have community. We can work and parent at the same time. In Australia, we’d be spending Sh25,000 a day on daycare. Here, we have a village.”
“You need a therapist waiting at the airport,” she jokes. “Timekeeping, corruption, red tape—it was frustrating. But now, I’ve reached a place of acceptance.”
Dorcas Mbugua, a lawyer and journalist poses for a photo at her home in Nairobi, Kenya. She has lived in Australia for 13 years.
Photo credit: Pool
Her return has evolved into purpose. Beyond her job, Dorcas mentors young women navigating transitions—whether moving abroad or returning home.
“My advice? Don’t romanticise either side. Whether you’re leaving or returning, know your ‘why’. Have a balanced view and information at hand. Make friends with people who don’t look like you or sound like you. When we move to a new country, we tend to gravitate towards fellow Kenyans or Africans because that’s our comfort zone but you’re both in the same boat. You have both come as international students, meaning you both face the same limitations. If you make friends with people who don’t look like you, you get a window into another world, you get insights into another world,” she says.”
Sara Mueller-Issa Okello: Returning to reinvest in community
Sara Mueller-Issa was 42 when she made what was supposed to be a short trip to Switzerland in 2002.
At the time, she had just lost her job as a manager at United Touring Company after 21 years. What began as a three-week holiday turned into two decades of caregiving work in a country she had long visited—thanks to her late Swiss husband—but never fully lived in.
“Going on holiday and settling down are two very different things,” she says. “Swiss life was quiet, ordered—and sometimes, stifling. In Kenya, we are loud, expressive. Over there, it’s all control.”
Even food felt foreign. “I missed sukuma and ugali,” she says, laughing.
Sara originally planned to stay for five years but ended up raising her children in Switzerland. “I wanted them to have stability. I told myself: once everyone is on their feet, I’m going home.”
Sara Mueller- Issa Okello, is the founder of a community-based organisation called MatsaRigi located in Kilifi. She has lived in Switzerland for 21 years.
Photo credit: Pool
In 2023, with her youngest son finished with school and working, she finally did.
Today, she lives in Kilifi County where she runs MatsaRigi, a community-based organisation focused on education, health, sustainable farming and women and youth empowerment.
“My heart was always here,” she says. “Despite Kenya’s problems, this is home.”
Far from a quiet retirement, Sara’s life is full. She grows fruit, keeps poultry, and works with local women’s groups. “Sometimes I ask myself, am I really retired?”
She misses some aspects of Swiss life—especially the bread and the working systems—but says the freedom to contribute directly to community life here outweighs those comforts.
