Nyando MP Jared Okelo has weighed in on Mwende Mwinzi’s dual citizenship dilemma following her appointment as South Korea envoy.
In an interview with Citizen TV, the lawmaker said that it is unfortunate that the battle has been taken to the court after Members of Parliament insisted that she must renounce her dual citizenship before she assumes office.
Okelo said that President Uhuru Kenyatta was misadvised before he named Mwende for the position.
“I feel that the president should have been advised correctly so that we do not have such situations. We now leave this matter to the courts,” he said.
His counterpart, Abdikadir Mohamed also backed him on the issue of the nomination of Mwinzi.
He affirmed that Parliament did not error after asking the nominee to consider dropping the US citizenship so that she can assume office in the new capacity.
“In my opinion, I think Parliament was right in their interpretation. But this matter is before court,” he said.
On her part, Mwinzi has maintained that she will not renounce her citizenship for the sake of the job. She has affirmed that she is entitled to the position because she acquired US citizenship by the virtue of being born there and not registration or naturalization.