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{
    "id": 27929,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/27929/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 463,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "We have provided for those who have lost their citizenship and how they can regain it in Clause 10. We have provided for citizenship by marriage. Originally, if a Kenyan lady were to marry, for example, a South African who lives here, of course, he was not entitled to citizenship. To remove that discrimination, a lady who is married by a Kenyan man would acquire citizenship just like a man who is married to a Kenyan lady. The only condition is that that person must have lived in Kenya continuously for a period of seven years. We have also provided for widows and widowers. This was not envisaged earlier in our law, but we have realized that there are many people who are married to Kenyans but before they can live here for seven years or as they approach seven years, they die and their widows or the widowers lose status. We have provided that if they continue to live here, they can now benefit from what they would have benefited if the spouse was alive. We have also provided for adopted children. If a Kenyan adopts a child, then the child becomes a Kenyan. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, something which is new in this Bill is called Stateless persons. There are people in Kenya here who for many years have been considered stateless. They came to Kenya from Nyasaland with the railway line and from Sudan to fight in the Second World War and are in Kibera here. Some of them were freed slaves from Mombasa and have lived at the Coast for many years. We have found it difficult to register these people as citizens because if you ask of their grandfathers and great grandfathers, you find that they may not be Kenyan. So, we want to now deal with that problem because many of them have been very useful Kenyans. Then we have also provided for descendants of stateless persons. If somebody was a stateless person or a freed slave, but now he has children and the children have children, we also want to give those grandchildren status. There is something that we did not have before at Clause 19 called voluntary renunciations of Kenyan citizenship. Earlier on, it was a must, if you really wanted to be a Kenyan, to renounce your citizenship. Where the world is going, you may apply to be a Kenyan, but we will not force you to renounce your citizenship. That is the provision of Clause 19. That is what goes on in America, Britain and many civilized countries; that if you become a citizen, you still retain your passport. They do not ask you to renounce your Kenyan citizenship. We do not have to force you to renounce your citizenship. In fact, there is a perfect case of a lecturer at Maseno University, a doctor, who is married to a doctor, and they have lived in Kenya for the last 40 years, but the lady has not become a Kenyan because she would be forced to renounce her citizenship. It was unfair. She can now become a Kenyan citizen without being forced to renounce her original citizenship."
}