Kenyan nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Kenya, as amended; the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Kenya. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual within the nation. In Britain and thus the Commonwealth of Nations, though the terms are often used synonymously outside of law, they are governed by different statutes and regulated by different authorities. Kenyan nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus soli, by being born in Kenya, or jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth in Kenya or abroad to parents with Kenyan nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through registration.
Acquisition of nationality Nationality can be acquired in Kenya at birth or later in life through registration.
By birth Those who acquire nationality at birth include:
Children born anywhere to at least one parent with Kenyan nationality; Children born in Kenya to foreigners prior to 12 December 1963, who on that date were British Protected Persons or Citizens of the UK and Colonies; or Foundlings or orphans up to age eight, discovered in Kenyan territory.
By registration Naturalisation, known in Kenya since 2010 as registration, can be granted to persons who understand Kiswahili or another dialect of the territory and have resided in the territory for a sufficient period of time to confirm they understand the customs and traditions of Kenya. General provisions are that applicants have good character and conduct; are of legal capacity; have not been convicted of a crime carrying a sentence of more than three years; have not been declared bankrupt; and have the ability to contribute substantively to the development of the nation. Applicants must typically have resided in the country for seven years. Besides foreigners meeting the criteria, other persons who may be registered include:
Children legally adopted by a Kenyan parent, at the time of completion of a legal adoption can register for Kenyan nationality; The spouse of a Kenyan national after seven years of marriage without a residency requirement; The widow or widower of a Kenyan national who would have been eligible for registration after seven years except for the death of their spouse; Stateless or migrant persons who have continuously lived in Kenya since birth in the territory; who meet the language, cultural understanding, and lack of criminal record registration requirements; and who intend to remain in Kenya; or Minor children may automatically be registered when their parent acquires nationality.
Loss of nationality Kenyan nationals can renounce their nationality pending approval by the state. Kenyans of origin may not be deprived of their nationality. Registered persons may be denaturalized in Kenya for committing crimes against the state or state security; ordinary crimes; or for fraud, misrepresentation, or concealment in a registration petition. Persons who previously had nationality and wish to repatriate if they voluntarily lost their status because of dual nationality must request reinstatement.
Dual nationality Dual nationality is typically allowed in Kenya for persons of origin since 2010. However, persons who hold the presidency or the deputy presidency, or other high positions in the state, are not allowed to have multiple nationalities.
History African empires and Arabic/European contact (1498–1895) The territory that now is known as Kenya was settled for millennia by migratory people who did not form centralized states or empires. Commerce between Bantu- and Swahili-speaking people with traders from the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulf led to the spread of Islam amongst the inhabitants by the twelfth century. In 1498, the Portuguese navigator and explorer Vasco da Gama landed at Mombasa and Malindi, forming an alliance with the Sultan of the latter. By the turn of the century, the Portuguese had forced out Muslim traders in the region, burning and looting Mombasa multiple times to gain control over the center of trade on the coast. Their most important trading center was built at Fort Jesus in 1591. Conflict between the Portuguese and the Omani Empire continued until 1729, when the Portuguese were ousted from the region. During the reign (1807–1856) of Sultan Sayyid Said, Omani subjects () were recognized as all Africans, Arabs, and Kutchi people residing in Oman or Zanzibar. In 1820 an Anglo-French agreement was reached to suppress piracy and the slave trade along the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Within three years, naval patrols regularly cruised the coastlines to administer the truce. Britain saw these patrols as necessary in the anti-slavery movement, as well as to protect commerce routes to India. In 1832 the Omani Empire moved its court seat to Zanzibar. At its height, Omani territory spanned from Somalia through Kenya to Mozambique and subjects of the sultan migrated inland to the Congo. Zanzibar flourished as the trading center, involved in both the agricultural and slave trade. After abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in Britain in 1833 and France in 1848, an illegal slave trade in East Africa soared using small vessels throughout the Indian Ocean.
In 1856, France authorized captives to be purchased and freed in exchange for an indentured labor contract to work on French colonial plantations, typically for seven years. British seizures of these small boats caused significant economic loss to the Sultan and angered the French because of the disruption to commerce. Upon the death of the sultan that year, a succession crisis occurred. The result was that the Sultanate of Zanzibar separated from Oman in 1861. Upon the separation, Sultan Thuwaini bin Said decreed that Lawati and Khoja people, regardless of whether they lived in Zanzibar or Oman, were his subjects because of their previous settlement in Oman. In 1865, Sayyid Majid bin Said, the first Sultan of Zanzibar, decreed that married women followed the nationality of their spouse, losing their Omani-Zanzibari status if the husband was foreign. Pressured to concede to prohibition of the slave trade in 1873, the Sultan's actions destabilized the economy of the region and angered his subjects involved in commerce. In an effort to curtail revolt by Arab traders, Britain and Germany proposed that they intervene to protect the sovereignty of the sultan.
At the Berlin Conference which occurred in 1884 and 1885, Britain and Germany each had competing claims to the territory that now comprises Kenya and Tanzania. In 1886, the two nations came to an agreement dividing the territory into three areas. Establishing a line north of Mount Kilimanjaro from Pemba Island on the west coast to Lake Victoria, the territory was divided in two parts. The ten-mile-wide strip of land between the Tana and Ruvuma Rivers designated as the Sultanate of Zanzibar formed the third part of the territory. Under the Anglo-German Agreement, the Sultan retained his sovereignty, though he leased concessions for fifty years to Germany in 1886 and Britain in 1887. Britain acquired the territory to the north of the line, while Germany controlled the area to the south. The Imperial British East Africa Company was granted a royal charter to administer the territory in 1888, but in 1895, the charter was surrendered.
British colony (1895–1963) Britain established the East Africa Protectorate in 1895 and in 1902, shifted the border westward claiming part of what had been territory of the Uganda Protectorate. In 1920, the entire territory of the East Africa Protectorate was annexed by Britain with the majority of the territory forming the Crown Colony of Kenya. In 1921, the coastal strip of the Sultanate of Zanzibar and adjoining lands of Jubaland, Kismayu, Lamu, Patta and Port Durnford were designated as the Kenya Protectorate. Four years later, Jubaland, Kismayu and Port Durnford were ceded to Somalia. In Britain, allegiance, in which subjects pledged to support a monarch, was the precursor to the modern concept of nationality. The crown recognised from 1350 that all persons born within the territories of the British Empire were subjects. Those born outside the realm — except children of those serving in an official post abroad, children of the monarch, and children born on a British sailing vessel — were considered by common law to be foreigners. Marriage did not affect the status of a subject of the realm, except that under common law, single women, including divorcées, were not allowed to be parents thus their children could not derive nationality maternally and were stateless unless legitimated by their father. Nationality laws passed by the British Parliament were extended only to the Kingdom of Great Britain, and later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. When British protectorates were established in 1815, there was little difference between the rights of British subjects and protected persons.
Persons in the Kenya Colony and British-born subjects living in the Kenya Protectorate (1914–1963) In 1911, at the Imperial Conference a decision was made to draft a common nationality code for use across the empire. The British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914 allowed local jurisdictions in the self-governing Dominions to continue regulating nationality in their territories, but also established an imperial nationality scheme throughout the realm. The uniform law, which went into effect on 1 January 1915, required a married woman to derive her nationality from her spouse, meaning if he was British, she was also, and if he was foreign, so was she. It stipulated that upon loss of nationality of a husband, a wife could declare that she wished to remain British and provided that if a marriage had terminated, through death or divorce, a British-born national who had lost her status through marriage could reacquire British nationality through naturalisation without meeting a residency requirement. The statute reiterated common law provisions for natural-born persons born within the realm on or after the effective date. By using the word person, the statute nullified legitimacy requirements for jus soli nationals. For those born abroad on or after the effective date, legitimacy was still required, and could only be derived by a child from a British father (one generation), who was natural-born or naturalised. Naturalisations required five years residence or service to the crown.