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Humza Yousaf gives a speech after winning the election to be the leader of the Scottish National Party in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 27, 2023.FILE
- On Monday, March 27, Humza Yousaf, the son of a Kenyan mother of South Asian origin, won the contest to become the Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and is poised to become the next First Minister of Scotland, which is the highest office in the country.If he succeed, Yousaf will become the second European leader to be a scion of Kenyan parents after Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK).Yousaf, the current Scottish Health Secretary, won a five-week contest against Ash Regan and Kate Forbes after the incumbent, Nicola Sturgeon, announced her resignation from her position as the country’s First Minister. Yousaf secured 52 per cent of the final round votes.
Humza Yousaf gives a speech after winning the election to be the leader of the Scottish National Party in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 27, 2023.FILEHis mother, Shaaista, was born in Kenya and is of South Asian origin. She immigrated from Kenya to Scotland in the 1960s.
As the son of first-generation immigrants, the politician will become the first Muslim and Asian leader of Scotland.
While his mother came from Kenya, his father is a Pakistani national but the two parents are descendants of the Punjabi community.
Yousaf was privately educated at the high-end Hutchesons’ Grammar School in Glasgow where he was inspired to join politics after taking classes in Modern Studies.
While his parents favoured careers such as law and medicine, he chose to study politics at the University of Glasgow.
He started his political career by campaigning for the SNP in 2007 and went on to work for Bashir Ahmad, who was the first Muslim and Asian Member of the Scottish Parliament.
Yousaf’s story of ascending to Scotland’s top political players is similar to that of Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom whose father also left Kenya for the UK in the 1960s.
Sunak became the first Hindu Asian unveiled as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom when he won the election to serve as the leader of the Conservative Party in October 2022.
Departures From Kenya
Many individuals of Asian origin left Kenya in the 1960s when the then ruling party, the Kenya African Union (KANU), rejected proposals for dual citizenship and started the Kenyanisation of industries.
The government then forced them to apply for work permits as fresh immigrants, thus, frustrating them further. Some opted to immigrate to the UK and other European countries in search of greener pastures.
Kenyans.co.ke