Kenyan-born American politician Huldah Momanyi during an interveiw with the Star in Nairobi on Tuesday /ENOS TECHE
Enjoying a dish of ugali and managu and speaking her Kisii language with pride, Hulda Momanyi won’t let her Kenyan roots die easily.
The 39-year-old mother of two was elected to represent the 38A district of the state of Minnesota in the United States House of Representatives.
She has lived in the North American country since she was nine.
“I’m so proud of my roots. I’m a proud Kisii who was born in a village and grew up here before joining my father in the US. I have learnt from my mother to ensure my children first learn the Kisii language and keep their heritage,” Momanyi told the Star in Nairobi.
She is in Kenya for homecoming celebrations after her victory and other private engagements.
The politician has ensured her children, aged seven and 15 months, bear Kisii names.
Momanyi started schooling in Kisii before transferring to Kakamega and then joined her father in the US in 1995.
Philip Momanyi was the first member of the family to fly out to the US as a student in 1988 and her mother joined him in 1992, before Hulda in 1995.
She says that her family struggled like every other person trying to find a breakthrough in America, before eventually getting the papers to legally stay in the country.
So intense was the fight for her legal status that her family at one time teetered on the brink of deportation.
The 11-year fight saw her father try to obtain permanent residence status in vain and the family were served with orders to leave.
Just 48 hours before enforcement of the orders, a local politician came to their aid.
Then Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone helped them, putting them in the path to regularised papers.
Wellstone represented the state in the US senate from 1991 but died in a plane crash in 2002.
Asked about how her experience makes her resonate with the immigrant community, including Kenyans in the US, given the harsh anti-immigrant policies of the incoming Donald Trump administration, Momanyi says people should calm down and wait and see.
“I understand the situation for immigrants, especially Kenyans who may not have ‘makaratasi’. With Trump, we have to wait and see because before he takes office, he can say all things but once in office we can then see how the policies shape up,” she said.
“He will realise that most of the things he says, including anti-immigrant policies, cannot be implemented because the law protects people. Also, the American economy depends on the immigrants so much that if he did the mass deportation he is talking about, the US economy would collapse,” she said.
