My Stolen Citizenship PDF Print E-mail
Written by Abdul Mote   
Thursday, 07 August 2008

I was one of the many Kenyans who were carried away in the wave of optimism immediately after the General Elections of 2003.



So optimistic we all were, that I had every reason to believe that through NARC, our great nation was going to reap the fruits of patience and determination, and rid us of decades of corruption and public rot endured through KANU.

One of the changes I was  looking forward to was the change of our nation's Constitution. The proposed document as realised through the Bomas Draft had contained so much for almost everyone, that my excitement had me celebrating its potential gains before it was actually adopted as our new Constitution. I had every reason to believe that NARC, under President Kibaki's leadership, and with the support of Raila Odinga and other senior politicians was going to fulfil most if not all of its campaign pledges. The long awaited Constitution was one of them, such an important that even as the promised one hundred days milestone was passed we kept the faith. But that was not to pass.

Of particular interest to me, the change I desired most, was the reform of our archaic citizenship laws. The ‘New Constitution' had promised provisions for dual citizenship, especially important to those Kenyans who lived abroad and might have considered it to be to their personal benefit to have both Kenyan and citizenship of their countries of present residence.  This is no matter of disloyalty, or of deracination. There are varied reasons why Kenyans living abroad should choose to take on these other citizen-ships, none of which denote a diminution in their potential contribution to Kenya, nor their attachment to the country and its people.

As a result of NARC's widely promulgated promise and the optimism with which their coming to power was viewed, I like many others set about planning and re-ordering my focus so as to benefit from all that such freedom and opportunity was sure to offer. Already bearing rights to application for such citizenship, I undertook to apply for nationalisation of my host country, knowing that its laws permitted dual-citizenship and expecting that Kenya's would follow suit in short order.  I had long held off, despite numerous temptations and now felt that my fear of losing my Kenyan citizenship was about to be made irrelevant. Alas, my hopes were dashed, unmet to this day. I managed to acquire my new citizenship with ease, but six years down the line, I am  technically speaking no longer a Kenyan. My fate had been sealed.

Whilst I do not regret at all for having done what I did, it is very inconveniencing that I now have to pay a ‘visa entry fee' of fifty dollars every time I want to visit home. And to make matters worse, I would also have to pay for a work permit in tens of thousands of shillings for the luxury of investing in my own country.

I am aware that there are many Kenyans who find themselves in circumstances similar to mine, but have no choice but to keep quiet and pretend to be Kenyans still, pretend that nothing has changed. Still, whenever I read of calls from our politicians urging businessmen and women from abroad and especially, Kenyans living abroad to invest in Kenya, I am angry at the unnecessary barriers that political ineptitude and inaction put in the way of Kenyans like me. The inconvenience caused as a result of that failure and the loss our beloved motherland is enduring is huge. The postponement of dual citizenship laws deters gains due to Kenya from the investment it made in hundreds of thousands of its sons and daughters, now bearing both capital and skills necessary for the development of Kenya, but who now find themselves living abroad.

It is my hope that this very minor, and uncontroversial change will be made in the constitution, and urgently so that we may stop dreaming and start living while we are still alive and capable. Begging foreign investors to invest back ‘home' is meaningless if the obstacles long condemned as archaic and unnecessary persist in our laws.   


Abdul Mote
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written by mkosakabila , August 08, 2008
Why apologize for and/or explain changing your citizenship to anyone? In any case it doesnt make you any less of a useful Kenyan as the (I wont call him Bondo Bumpkin) Right Honorable Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
But I dont see why you're whining about paying visa fees coming into Kenya or for work permits. I really dont. Those are rules. And why should you have your cake and eat it too? Dont be greedy.
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well said
written by Daniel.Waweru , August 08, 2008
Nice one Abdul. Especially with the massive remittances from the Diaspora - KES 22B so far this year, according to BusinessDaily - these restrictions on dual citizenship are idiotic. Of course, we Kenyans are support these restricions while claiming Obama as one of our own!
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Its just a paper
written by Mlevi , August 08, 2008
To me citizenship is a state of mind, For it is necessarily about being Kenyan or American, its about the opportunity of being a global citizen. That said, even though I have lived in my host country longer than I have lived in Kenya, I am and will always feel Kenyan despite what my passport says. I have made peace with this issue and to paraphrase Sting
I don't drink coffee, I take tea my dear, I like my toast done on one side, And you can hear it in my accent when I talk I'm an Kenyan in New York

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written by mkosakabila , August 08, 2008

I think its even stupider to suggest that the lack of dual citizenship somehow limits remittances or on the other hand constrains Kenyans from making investments in Kenya. I know quite a bunch of folk who are happily investing away using their national IDs and I know a whole bunch who hold foreign citizenship that hardly send a penny back home and I know a whole other bunch that are wary of investing back home because of the difficulties for monitoring presented by living overseas. Convenient it may be, but let's not pretend that dual citizenship is a panacea.
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some laws are so stupid
written by jaya wardene , August 09, 2008
There are some laws that are so stupid that they are mostly honoured in their breach. I do not propose to tell people to break the law but many people say Mimi mkenya damu papers or not
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written by mkosakabila , August 09, 2008
I quite consciously walked the plank and did anticipate this response. Very good. I also knew I'd respond like this: I have absolutely NO sympathy for those losers who happily traded in their Kenyan passports for some other one to gain certain advantages(?), which having been secured (or not), they are now conveniently demanding dual status. Right, though the grass is greener on the other side, it still has to be mowed, in many ways. In fact, an investor worth his salt shouldn't be whining over visa fees and work permits—they’d absorb that and at worst negotiate over other bigger things, like tax. Bure kabisa!
Anyway, wouldn’t be surprised if whoever coined the concept of free riding had Kenyans in mind.
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What are the gains ? An incentive to bring back talents from abroad
written by wuod aketch , August 10, 2008
Kenya has nothing to loose adding the double citizenship chapter in it's new constitution. If the country wants to encourage those that have gained experience abroad to come back and build the country someday, then this is the way to go. There are many highly qualified Kenyans that I know who have taken foreign citizenships and they all say that they want to find the way back home sometime. The mono citizenship may discourage some because these people have families who are citizens of the other country. If the Kenyan (who is now foreigner) comes back home, his/her family automatically become foreigners with the present laws.
Kenya is not yet that rich to spit into this double citizen soup. Many powerful and open minded developed countries accept double citizenships, so why not us?

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written by mkosakabila , August 11, 2008
Hola Editors,
Do you think Wuod Aketch meant lose in his first sentence above? and not loose? No harm meant, not to Wuod really, just callng out a common practice that so aggravates.
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mkosakabila
written by wuod aketch , August 11, 2008
Thanks for pointing out the typo. I have no excuse whatsoever but please bear with me, I only practice English when I come to KI. I hope that the most important, i.e, the message was understood 5/5.
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written by abdulmote , August 12, 2008

Shame on Kenya with all http://www.nation.co.ke/magazi...index.html these athlets running away for other countries, simply because of they had to acquire some other citizenship. I very much doubt that they would have still chozen to run for their adopted countries had they been able to 'retain' their own 'Kenyanness'.
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written by charles , August 13, 2008
I love my country!
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