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Gender commission nominee rejected over nationality

The House agreed with the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee on Labour and Social Welfare which vetted the two, with Chairman David Were telling the House that Alawy's nationality was in question/FILE

The House agreed with the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee on Labour and Social Welfare which vetted the two, with Chairman David Were telling the House that Alawy’s nationality was in question/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 4 – Members of the National Assembly on Tuesday unanimously voted to reject the nomination of Abdillahi Alawy as a member of the National Equality and Gender Commission, but approved the appointment of Florence Nyokabi.

The House agreed with the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee on Labour and Social Welfare which vetted the two, with Chairman David Were telling the House that Alawy’s nationality was in question.

“We discovered that Dr Alawy is a dual citizen, he became a citizen of the US in 2005, and as we know dual citizenship was not recognised here and anyone who gained citizenship of another country lost citizenship here.”

“We subjected Dr Alawy to tell us if he had regained Kenyan citizenship, he submitted a dual citizenship declaration form of the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act 2011, signed on February 21, 2014, this is one day after he had appeared before this committee,” the Matungu MP explained.

Were said the committee realised that the form Alawy had submitted was of no use to them because it was not in line with the Act on Section 8(3) which was meant for dual citizen or Kenyans who got citizenship three months after the enactment of the August 2010 Constitution.

Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act 2011 Section 8(3) reads; every dual citizen shall disclose his/her other citizenship in the prescribed manner within three months of becoming a dual citizen.

House Minority Leader Francis Nyenze led MPs Tiyah Galgalo and Samuel Gichigi in backing the committee which found that the Alawy, despite holding remarkable credentials, had failed to provide evidence that the he is a Kenyan national.

“Dr Alawy is not a Kenyan. We cannot give the jobs to a foreigner when we have many Kenyans suffering,” Nyenze said as he contributed to the debate.

“It was clear that he is an American citizen and to date he has not obtained documentation to show that he is a Kenyan as per the time of interview,” stated Galgalo.

Gichingi stated: “In as far as we had no personal issues with him; he is technically unqualified under Article 78 of the Constitution which bars non-Kenyan nationals from holding public office unless it is for consultation purposes.”

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The two nominees were forwarded to Parliament by President Uhuru Kenyatta for vetting.

At the same time, the legislators rejected the nomination of lawyer Vincent ole Lempaa as a nominee to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

While moving the motion, Justice and Legal Affairs Committee Chairman Samuel Chepkonga said Lempaa who has also practiced as a journalist with the state broadcaster, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, was not in the original list of those who were interviewed and seconded to the President and wondered how his name appeared in Parliament.

Other nominees Kagwiria Mbogori as the chair, Susan Shatikha Chivusia, George Morara Monyoncho, and Jedidah Wakonyo were approved by the committee and the House.

Some MPs bitterly complained that some communities were being marginalised in top government appointments.

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