Student Op-ed

By Natasha Kisila |Albert Walker Fuller Prize Winner 2025

After having lived outside my country, Kenya, for over two years, coming back home has been a fever dream. Sitting at the back of my Uber, the driver, Kennedy, asks me what route he should take home, and after pretending to contemplate between the roads he suggested, I confess that I hadn’t been home in a while. Kennedy was surprised to learn that I had moved out of the country at the age of 18. And it fueled him even more to know that I went to Italy—of all places. After going on about all the European countries he wished to see, I was dismayed to learn that Kennedy had never travelled outside the African continent, let alone the country. 

You see, like most people born in the supposed “third world” countries, whenever someone like Kennedy or I wish to see something beyond the borders of our home, we are met with countless immigration obstacles, unattainable finances, and never-ending passport politics. The political hierarchy in the world selects who deserves to see the world.

Where you were born, who your parents are, and how much money you have: all these factors out of your control determine if you have the right to explore and experience different cultures.  

My first experience ever applying to go abroad was for a prosthetic surgery on my left hand. The sterile room at the US embassy was flooded with applicants covered in title deeds, bank statements and invitation letters, all to prove legitimacy to enter the country. I was surprised to see that the entire interview was conducted behind a glass frame, and only two minutes in, the look on the officer’s face revealed that we were not eligible. I started to call this the “no” face. He asked me why I “wanted to go to America.” Aged only four, I turned to my dad for an answer. This first time had a particular sting due to the novelty of the process. Now, five visa interviews later, I remember people like Kennedy, who rarely have the opportunity to get to the embassy to begin with. My cousin applied a total of eight times before he made it to Germany.  

And the trouble doesn’t end there, you still have to travel and mimic the process at every passport checkpoint, shaking at the idea that today will be the day they don’t let you in. I have the privilege of using my education to see parts of the world my parents did not know when they were my age. Even with all its financial plights, the experience is still something I cherish highly, because I understand the rarity of it.  

It is still important to question why these obstacles are placed for certain people and not for others. Although I would never trade being Kenyan for anything, the noticeable disparities between how many Africans you meet abroad versus every other regions of the world is telling. Though it has been normalized, even by those who are at the receiving end of it, the logic has to be observed to understand why some people are considered “worthy” to travel while others are not.

So, while you can easily come into my country, applying for your visa on the plane, I must apply for an interview with a minimum of three months before travelling. 

What does this say? 

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Natasha Kalondu Kisila was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. She is an undergraduate student at John Cabot University currently completing a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Communications.

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The Albert Walker Fuller Prize in Communication

The Albert Walker Fuller Prize was named for the publisher and editor of The Enterprise, a newspaper that is published in Massachusetts and currently distributed throughout the Southeastern Massachusetts area. This newspaper was in the Fuller family for over a hundred years and four generations of publishers and editors-in-chief. Fuller’s aim through his activities as an editorialist was to encourage people to talk about all aspects of an issue. The Albert Walker Fuller Prize in Communication aims at continuing his commitment by awarding a prize to those editorial pieces that effectively do the same.