By Sam Makinda Posted Friday, November 20 2009 at 00:00
The new draft constitution, published on Tuesday, canvasses many issues, but for most Kenyans in the diaspora, one thing that towers above everything else, is dual citizenship.
Like the Wako draft constitution, which Kenyans rejected in the 2005 referendum, the new document provides for dual citizenship.
It is understandable why a newly independent Kenya decided against dual citizenship in the early 1960s, but the policy was left in place for too long.
Most Kenyan policy makers and the public now appear to acknowledge that those who were born Kenyans should not lose their citizenship on account of taking up citizenship elsewhere.
They also believe children born to Kenyan parents, wherever they may be, are Kenyan citizens.
When I discussed this issue in Nairobi a few years ago, someone commented that dual citizenship would confer clear benefits to the Kenyans in the diaspora who would recover their lost citizenship, but he did not see benefits that would accrue to the country or the majority of Kenyans who live in Kenya.
I argued that dual citizenship involves benefits as well as costs to the Kenyan diaspora, but that it was important to view it as a two-way street in which both the country and the individuals affected would benefit.
I said also that in the longer-term, the country was likely to benefit far more than these individuals.
For example, there are several wealthy Kenyans in the diaspora who are waiting to recover their citizenship before investing substantially in the country, and their investments are likely to generate many jobs, goods and services for Kenyans.
Citizenship involves many things and performs various functions, but it ought to be understood in terms of at least three crucial factors: identity or nationality, rights or privileges, and duties or obligations.
The Kenyans in the diaspora, who were compelled by the current constitution to give up their Kenyan citizenship because they had become citizens of the countries in which they live and work, would regain their Kenyan identity, rights and obligations once the draft constitution is accepted and implemented.
Most countries that have accepted or encouraged dual citizenship have benefited considerably from the resources, skills and services they have received from the diaspora.
Without enormous input from the diaspora, China, India, Israel and Taiwan would not be as advanced as they are today.
This is partly why the African Union (AU) has encouraged its member states, including Kenya, to tap into the diaspora for investments, technology transfer and other development resources.
The AU, which comprises five geographical regions, considers the African diaspora to be its sixth region.
The Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs appropriately regards the diaspora as one of the five pillars of foreign policy, in addition to economic, peace, environmental and cultural diplomacy.
According to its Sessional Paper of 2009, the Foreign Ministry intends to work with other ministries to invite Kenyans in the diaspora “to invest their skills and resources in the various sectors of national development”.
The longer the policy makers take to implement dual citizenship, the more Kenya misses out on crucial investments, technology transfers and other job-creation enterprises.
Makinda is a professor of security, terrorism and counter-terrorism studies, Murdoch University Australia.
-BusinessDailyAfrica.com
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