By 2016, Kenyans living abroad were sending home over $1.5 billion annually in remittances, making the diaspora one of the largest contributors to Kenya's economy. Kenyans in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Gulf states and elsewhere built houses in their home villages, paid university fees for siblings, funded small businesses and sent money home for medical bills. The remittance economy had become as important to millions of Kenyan families as any government programme. Kenya's most effective development programme was run by its own people living in other countries.