How to Obtain Citizenship by Descent in Kenya

LADISLAS MAURICE

Hello everyone. Ladislas Maurice of The Wandering Investor. Today beautiful Nairobi and we’re going to go meet my lawyer and discuss how to obtain Kenyan citizenship by descent. So, I’m a little late. We’re going to jump on this boda here.

And we are going to the CBD, center of town, meet with Safina and discuss all the details. Let’s go.

LADISLAS MAURICE

How much do I owe you?

PAUL KIMANI

So, it’s this 150 now?

LADISLAS MAURICE

150. Paul Kimani?

PAUL KIMANI

Yeah, thank you.

LADISLAS MAURICE

Thank you, eh? God bless you.

Great. So I made it to Safina’s law firm. She’s my lawyer. She’s helped me with a number of real estate transactions here, as well as a number of my clients. And Mr. Moraya, who is head of operations for citizenship by descent and residency matters, here at Safina’s law firm.

Kenya up to 2010 had a very unfortunate law in that it did not accept dual citizenship. And any Kenyan that left Kenya and moved to the UK or to the US or Canada, et cetera, and that became a citizen of those countries, would automatically lose Kenyan citizenship, which was very unfortunate. But all that changed in 2010.

So, Safina, can you elaborate a little bit on on the law?

SAFINA

So, August 27th, 2010 is when our constitution was officially passed and through its promulgation, it allowed dual citizenship. Meaning that whoever had lost their citizenship as a result of having another nationality could regain their citizenship. If there are any Kenyans out there who lost citizenship as a result of prior to 2010, you can always come back and regain citizenship. There’s also another method of gaining citizenship, and that is if you are born to a Kenyan parent.

He can focus more on the documents needed, but I would highly recommend if any of your parents out there were born in Kenya, you are entitled to Kenyan citizenship. Uh so I would apply.

LADISLAS MAURICE

Are there any tribal or ethnic restrictions?

SAFINA

Oh, no, none whatsoever.

LADISLAS MAURICE

Okay, so any background can apply?

SAFINA

Yes.

LADISLAS MAURICE

We’re also in the business of citizenship by investment and we help a lot of people, a lot of Europeans, a lot of Americans apply for African citizenships through investment. And these people invest upwards of $100,000 to become citizens of countries like Sierra Leone, like Sao Tome, et cetera. So, if you are of Kenyan descent and you essentially have the opportunity to become Kenyan for just, I don’t know what the exact fees are, I’d say a few thousand dollars, it is an amazing opportunity. It gives you full access to Kenya, obviously, but also to East Africa in general, better travel rights across Africa, and just as the economy in Western countries is not doing great and that will probably last for a relatively long time, you want to have the option of being able to come back and conduct business here easily. And if it’s not you, then your children. Am I correct?

MR. MORAYA

If for example, well I’m I’m not of Kenyan origin, but if I were to become Kenyan because let’s say my father was was Kenyan and then I have children even if they’re born overseas, even if the mom is no not Kenyan, the children would become Kenyan from day one.

They become Kenyans automatically as far as uh one of the parent was Kenyan by the time the child was born.

So there’s usually what we call Kenyans born abroad. So if my parent was Kenyan by the time I was born even if I was in UK, US, wherever, I get to be Kenyan citizen.

LADISLAS MAURICE

So, this is a duty, I believe, if you are at a stage where you plan on having children in the future and you’re of Kenyan descent, it would be absolutely unacceptable for you not to do this. Uh because you would be essentially withdrawing that massive opportunity for for your future offspring. This is a generational move really.

Mr. Moraya, can you elaborate on the paperwork required to claim this citizenship by descent?

MR. MORAYA

Uh basically one of the parents or both parents, proof of documents, they are uh their birth certificates, their ID copies. There also what we call if one had registered a second citizen before. And from there we have what we call police clearance certificates, that is the good conduct. Then there’s the application forms, they also ask for passport photos. Yeah, basically those are the the basically uh the required documents plus the the application fee which is not much, actually few dollars. So, yeah, basically that’s it.

LADISLAS MAURICE

A lot of people don’t necessarily have the birth certificates or don’t know where to find the birth certificates. Can you help with the process of of finding essentially the documentation you’re in Kenya?

MR. MORAYA

Basically yes. In regards to that, if you give us the details of maybe your parents, where they lived, the years they were born, yeah, there are registries all over. Then we can follow up for them.

LADISLAS MAURICE

Okay, so then your team can go even to the rural areas and go to the local registries and just physically just withdraw the birth certificate?

MR. MORAYA

When you don’t have the paperwork, we at least uh data fee, we use our team, we mobilize them, they go to the area chiefs, they go to the local we call them village men, they look for documents until we got the correct the correct names and the birth certificates from the registries.

LADISLAS MAURICE

So, Safina, where are most of your clients from because you now have a whole section of your business dealing with this, is it a a do-Most?

SAFINA

Most of our clients right now are from the UK, and the last one was also from Portugal. So, we are getting now more queries. And now that they’ve got their citizenship or regained it, some of them, they’ve asked now if they can pass it on to their children, or future children that will be born.

So, for now, it’s mainly Europe and the UK, but and of late we’ve started to get a lot of queries from the diaspora in the US.

LADISLAS MAURICE

So, look, if you’re of Kenyan descent, this is a no-brainer. I really encourage you to to go ahead and and seize this opportunity for yourself and your descendants. If you want to find out more about this service, there’s a link below. You can get in touch directly with Safina and Mr. Moraya, and they can help you with the whole process from A to Z until you become a Kenyan citizen. Roughly what are the timelines? Because there are there’s a big application backlog, right?

SAFINA

There is. There is. Last time we did it in about four months, I think.

LADISLAS MAURICE

Four months, so it’s actually pretty quick.

SAFINA

It can be, provided you have all the paperwork in order.

LADISLAS MAURICE

So, four months from handing in all the paperwork.

Fantastic. Safina, Mr. Moraya, thank you very much.