Renounciation of Kenyan Citizenship in Germany on Hold

Relax, I’m not going to come up with a conspiracy theory of how UK and his government are preventing Kenyans from renouncing Kenyan citizenship in Germany.

In October 2014, a directive came in from the ministry in-charge of citizenship matters to all Kenyan missions. The directive required that all renounciation applications and the passports of those applying to be sent to the ministry in Kenya to be signed. Embassies were then immediately banned from signing the applications themselves as had been the norm.

Since then, all applications that have been sent to the Embassy have not been returned to the applicants. Although they had demanded to have the passports sent to Kenya as well, the Embassy was able to amend this, to instead send in copies. A process that would normally take 2-4 weeks to complete, has seen hundreds of Kenyans living in Germany wait for months.

According to the head of consular, Mr. Wamela, “We haven’t received any of the applications we sent since November 2014, we request the Kenyans to bear with us as we wait for Nairobi to respond”.

Mr. Wamela was also quick to reassure that he had spoken to Nairobi and they had promised to send in the first batch by end of work day today (Tuesday, 24th March). “We however aren’t sure which passports they will send, but we’ll let the owners know as soon as we get them.”

To all Kenyans looking to renounce their citizenship this year, please keep in mind that it will take longer than it used to. However, if you need to travel and therefore also your passport, after you have handed in your application, the Embassy will send back your passport to you, which you can send back to them when you return from your trip.