Dual citizenship long overdue

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.