The MPs have refused to approve Mwinzi’s appointment on the basis that she is both a Kenyan and U.S. citizen. They asked her to renounce her American citizenship before taking up the ambassadorial appointment.
Raila, however, termed the treatment of Mwinzi by MPs as extremely disturbing and dubious. He stated that the Constitution allows for dual citizenship
He said: “From the cries of our sons and daughters abroad, we, as a country, agreed to allow dual citizenship, seeing clear advantages that would come with it. It is against this background that I find the treatment of Ms. Mwende Mwinzi by our Parliament extremely disturbing and dubious”.
According to Raila, the whole debate around whether she qualifies to be Kenya’s ambassador has cast Mwinzi 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.
Furthermore, he explained that Mwinzi could not meet the MPs demands because she did acquire US citizenship by application
“Mwende Mwinzi was born in the US. That made her an American citizen. But 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. She thus ended up with being a citizen of two countries
However, she cannot denounce any because both have 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,”
Raila asked Parliament to rise above partisan interests and act in the interest of the nation noting that there is no reason whatsoever for MPs to maintain Ms. Mwende Mwinzi the country’s ambassador abroad.