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.
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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.