When Achie Ojony Alai applied for a position in the county government of Kisumu in 2017, it was an odd and new career move. After her graduation with an economics degree from the University of Nairobi, she had joined Gillette as a trainee for 18 months.
It was during this time that she fell in love with marketing and branding. Her professional footprint includes stints at McCann Erickson, Leo Burnett, Max Factor, Toyota, and Delta Airlines.
Now, she had a plan to transform Kisumu’s tourism sector.
“The number of tourists that came into the country was stagnant. My vision for Kenya was, how can I assist the national minister, and the county, to get people into Kisumu,” Achie Ojany Alai, now an international conference moderator and speaker, says in an interview with The Valentine Njoroge Show.
Achie says that she realized that Kenya was losing some of its old glory as a fabulous tourism destination in Africa. According to her, the country’s self-branding strategy had worn out and there was a need to proactively position the country as the most suitable location for investment and cultural experience.
It was during her time at the helm of the Kisumu County Tourism ministry that several national and international meetings, seminars, and conferences were organized in the county. Achie says that her initial plan was to position the county as a Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) destination to popularize Kisumu to the world.
“After carrying out my feasibility study, I created the department of MICE. Then I hired people, get a budget, and take it to cabinet. I even had to convince the assembly to approve it,” said Achie.
The city has an international airport, good infrastructure, and a robust hotel industry that make it ideal for conferences and other forms of tourism. It hosted the Africities Global Summit in April 2022, as well as a litany of other national summits that boosted profits for local businessmen and subsequent revenue to the county.
“You go out to look for what you want. Not sit there as a minister and wait for the world to come to you. I would go out and talk to the airlines, talk to the corporates, and convince them to take part in our plans,” said Achie.
Challenges and The Future
Achie disputes that civil servants are demotivated and unprofessional. “Public servants are stellar. In whatever sectors they are in, they are experts in that area. By quoting the constitution, laws – both local and international – they used to blow my mind. They know their stuff,” Achie said.
While she notes that her experience at the county ministry was gratifying, she acknowledges difficulties such as corruption and underfunding. Most of the projects in both sports and culture which she pioneered had to be shelved for other county services to be prioritized. She believes that a change in government attitude towards corruption, and societal collaboration would ensure the vice is eradicated.
“Eradicating corruption has to be a national call,” Achie said. “Top leaders working with the clergy, calling everyone on board and say we are not doing right. Working with educational institutions to introduce anti-corruption messages would help fix the mess.”
Achie Ojany Alai argues that experiential tourism should the next step for Kenya. According to her, the concept behind experiential tourism is the desire to learn from other people’s culture and experiences by actively involving oneself in it, opposed to passive observation.
“Social media has made the world a single unit. Having your own identity as a people is core. People in tourism are now travelling not to see the beautiful or fancy things necessarily. But they are looking forward to immersing themselves,” she said.
