This archive report was first published on 18 September 2019.
President Uhuru Kenyatta's nominee to the South Korean Embassy, Mwende Mwinzi, has sparked a court battle after declining to renounce her US citizenship.
Ms Mwinzi, who was nominated on May 2, 2019, has filed an urgent petition at the High Court to compel Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma to designate and post her to Seoul as the country's envoy.
According to Mwinzi, she is a US citizen by birth and cannot renounce this before taking up the position as recommended by the National Assembly's departmental committee on defence and foreign relations.
Lawyer Tom Ojienda has argued that the committee's recommendation was unconstitutional and illegal, as only a State office requires an appointee to hold Kenyan citizenship alone.
Prof Ojienda submitted that the position of ambassador is a public office which is exempted from constitutional requirements for State officers and that the law protects Mwinzi from renouncing her US citizenship.
Published on September 18, 2019.
