Raila faults MPs over Mwende Mwinzi's ambassadorial post

AU envoy Raila Odinga has waded into the controversy surrounding the appointment of Mwende Mwinzi as ambassador to South Korea over her dual citizenship.

Raila now wants MPs to withdraw their decision of compelling Mwinzi to revoke her American citizenship to take up the position of Kenya’s ambassador to South Korea.

Mwende's appointment was rescinded by MPs on September 26 after they approved a report by the Defence and Foreign Relations committee which stated that the nominee be appointed on condition she renounces her US citizenship.

In a statement on Saturday, Raila termed the treatment of Mwinzi by Parliament as extremely disturbing and dubious.

“The whole debate around whether she qualifies to be Kenya’s ambassador has cast her as a criminal and reduced her to being less Kenyan than the Members of Parliament while the spirit of letter of the law should protect her,” the statement read.

He said opposition to Mwende’s appointment amounts to killing the spirit and necessity of dual citizenship through which Kenyans sought equal rights abroad and at home to enable them to contribute to the development of our nation.

From the cries of our sons and daughters abroad, he said as a country, agreed to allow dual citizenship, seeing clear advantages that would come with it.

"Kenya’s Diaspora remittances in 2018 stood at Sh280 billion, way more than the Sh242 billion sent to the rest of Eastern Africa — Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Ethiopia," he said.

The ODM party leader said it was unfair for MPs to ask her to renounce her US citizenship because both citizenships had been acquired not by application and naturalization but by operation of the law.

"She cannot undo her birth in the USA; neither can she undo her sire by her father or his Kenyan citizenship. ‌The Constitution protects her from jeopardy by making a provision for people like her."

According to Raila, Mwinzi was born in the US thus making her an American citizen.

She was born of a Kenyan father and that made her eligible to claim Kenyan citizenship, which she did when her father migrated to Kenya with the family.

Under the constitution today, Raila said anyone born of a Kenyan parent is automatically a Kenyan citizen regardless of whether they are born in Kenya or not.

He called on MPs to rise above partisan interests and act in the interest of the nation urging them to always stand up for the nation.

 

His sentiments come a day after The Kenya Diaspora Alliance sought to be enjoined in a case where Mwende Mwinzi wants to stop MPs from forcing her to renounce her US citizenship. 

Through lawyer Charles Omanga, KDA said Mwinzi has been an active player in the welfare of Kenyans in the diaspora who hold dual citizenship.

“Unless the court allows the application, Mwinzi will suffer prejudice because we would have been denied the opportunity to legally challenge the flawed division which can affect its members appointed in various government positions,” Omanga said in the application filed on Thursday.