In the year 2010 after winning the national election for a second and last term in office, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania embarked on a Global trotting mission to seduce Tanzanians abroad and investors with carrots to invest at home.
The carrots promised by President Jakaya Kikwete and his key officials in Government to the members of Diaspora and Investors were varying in packages, including tax holidays, Government support in enhancing the private sector as Tanzania has fully integrated in to a free market economy unlike in the 1960s and the 1970s.
Unfortunately, only one crucial and necessary package called Dual Citizenship was not practically mentioned in the packages by President Jakaya Kikwete to the communities in the Diaspora and Investors.
It is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bernad Mbema who has finally embarked on the main subject of the Dual Citizenship proposal as a direct project to attract Tanzanians in the Diaspora and potential investors, despite the on going constitutional reform in which the subject is inclusive.
At a recent launch of a new outreach project for Tanzanians living abroad, Mr Membe called on Tanzanians to put up more pressure on the Constituent Assembly to discuss and finally pass a provision that allows for dual citizenship in the new constitution. He further went on to dismiss unfounded claims that dual citizenship could compromise national security.
According to Mr Membe, many Tanzanian experts living abroad have the desire to support the development initiatives at home through investments but they cannot do so due to the fact that the country doesn't allow dual citizenship.
Bernad Membe further said that, a regular citizen living abroad cannot be a traitor.
Tanzanian scholars like Geofrey Wambura, not real names, doubts the political credibility of dual citizenship by using examples of neighboring countries like Uganda,Kenya,Burundi and Rwanda.
"It would be shameful for Tanzania to be in the same camp with her neighboring countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Kenya; countries that have violated peace because of civil-chaos within their national borders.
Tanzania is a peaceful country and needs to distinguish itself from her neighbors by not recognizing dual citizenship status as it may offer green cards to natives who no longer hold Tanzanian Citizenship" said by Mr. Wambura.
Mr. Wambura believes that dual citizenship is a vulnerable law that may destabilize Tanzania. He further elaborates a country that has dual citizenship laws, its internal and foreign policies get affected when the country is experiencing turbulent political challenges.
This argument can be supported by the current political crisis in Ukraine. The Ukraine constitution recognizes dual citizenship. Russia vows to directly interfere into the affairs of sovereign neighboring state like Ukraine in order to protect "anyone who holds a Russian Passport".
According to the Reuters and other international news agencies, Ukraine is trying to defend its regions and national boarders from breaking apart and being infiltrated by the Russian Army.
The move has motivated Russia's sinister intention to invade blatantly by announcing it has a right to protect Russian citizens and those who speak Russian. This means that other sovereign countries will simply come into Ukraine to evacuate their citizens and leave those who only hold Ukrainian passports depressed and perplexed in the context.
ECONOMIC BENEFITS FOR EAST AFRICA
Economically, dual citizenship still scores highly in demand for implementation. The World Bank Report of January 2013 stated that the money sent by Africans in Diasporas amounts to 60 billion dollar annually with Tanzania, South Africa and Ghana as the most expensive in transferring charges.
Feasibility study made by new data from the Send Money Africa database, funded by AIR Project, indicates that Africans pay more to send money home than any other migrant group.
The Sub-Saharan African region is the most expensive to transfer money in, with an average remittance costs estimated at 12.4 percent in 2012. The average cost of transferring money to Africa as a whole is almost 12 percent, which is higher than global average of 8.96 percent, and almost double the cost of sending money to South Asia, which has the world's lowest prices (6.54 percent).
The Tanzanian Minister for Foreign Affairs Bernad Membe said that, "Ghana's diaspora contributes $2.1 billion annually, Nigeria's $3.1 billion, and Kenya's $1.6 billion and Tanzania has about 2 million people living abroad but they contribute less than $100,000".
Speaking to The EastAfrican gazzette, Mr.Simai Mohamed Said who is the Commissioner for the Constitutional Review Commission said that, the Commission received mixed views regarding dual citizenship, with the majority at the border saying they wanted it because of services they accessed from neighbouring countries.
"When collecting views, we met people in border towns who by the nature of their geographical location have to cross the border to neighbouring countries for education, for their parental children, medical services and jobs," he said.
Additionally, he continued that "Tanzania is going to pass into law the dual citizenship bill because [Tanzanian] will have to extend its securities to citizens in neighboring countries. As Tanzania is surrounded by troubled nations, it will be required to evacuate its citizens when the war breaks up".
Tanzania is also concerned with the land grabbing issues and the unmanageable case loads as the legal sector is currently under funded. Currently there is some "land disputes in Western and Northern Tanzania" that are easily handled when one of the parties involved has murky immigration status in the country.
Illegal immigrants lack standings in Tanzanian courts. The influx of immigrants who have overstayed their visas or violated immigration law such as owning land in the country disturb peace in various villages and in rural areas.
"Allowing dual citizenship will enable the very people to give the state hard time through their newly acquired legal status by taking advantage in manipulating the system and inconveniencing villagers by grafting their properties," said Advocate Kamanga Kapinga from Ruvuma.
Currently, Tanzania is in short of legal staff and health facilities to accommodate the influx of people that will cross the border into Tanzania for education, health treatment, and legal services.
Under the current laws, "international organizations such as the United Nations assist those who are affected by wars. This is not a burden that Tanzania is ready to bear," said a Tanzanian lawyer Kamanga Kapinga.
It is both realistic and right to acknowledge the technicalities of dual Citizenship laws as being far from uniform between party-countries involved. This international legal inconsistence is a clear indication that dual citizenship is economically very crucial but politically unpredictable unless policies are well streamlined to protect territorial and national interests of a sovereign state.
OTHER COUNTRIES APPROACH TO DUAL CITIZENSHIP
The international legal inconsistence has been interpreted and implemented differently whenever the aspect of dual citizenship emerges.
A country like Pakistan allows dual citizenship but only with sixteen countries; the approach makes it very unique from other countries practicing dual citizenship with no such condition and space.
The US Immigration-nationals Act states that accepting, serving in, or performing duties in a foreign government is a potentially expatriating act if the person is a national of that country or takes an oath of allegiance in connection with the position.
In Canada, holders of dual nationality do not face a problem standing for office. Canada does allow dual nationals to serve in its Parliament and even run for the prime ministerial office.
Infact, many Canadian Parliamentarians at the moment are dual nationals.
Australia, on the hand, is quite clear on the illegibility of dual nationals. While dual Citizenship is allowed, according to the Australian Constitution's section 44, those who hold foreign citizenship are not allowed to sit in Parliament.
In East Africa, the countries practicing dual citizenship have the same goal of economic prosperity but very different objectives drive the agenda of practicing it.
Uganda is one of the East African Community blocks in the region, whose rationale of dual citizenship law was to allow Ugandans in the Diaspora to make enormous contribution in to the economic and social development of Uganda with much ease.
The website in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uganda highlights some four reasons why it is important to acknowledge dual citizenship. Acknowledging dual citizenship enable Ugandans in the Diaspora to maintain linkages with their roots without any legal challenges.
The website further continues to hint on the need to attract potential investors and the paramount need to enable Ugandans in the Diaspora to maintain linkages with their roots without any legal hindrances.
Unfortunately, for Uganda's political dynamics, the Rwandese Tutsi's are known to have fought the guerilla war under the National Resistance Army to overthrow the military Junta Government under Tito Okello Lutwa in January, 1986.
To Rwandese who have subscribed to this particular kind of struggle of bringing President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in to power in 1986, dual citizenship is an opportunity to achieve the double benefits of their roots without any legal hindrances and ability to vote in Uganda.
Political pundits have always lamented that Rwandese refugees in Uganda who benefited from the scheme of dual citizenship, had the main goal of keeping in power their godfather President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the nation had turn in to a democracy.
According to Jacob Waiswa from Iganga district in Uganda, not real names, politically, the concept of dual citizenship is a burden to an ordinary native Ugandan, since it creates a provision of patronage with impunity to keep a particular type of Government in Uganda that has connections towards that particular ethnicity historically.
RWANDA
Another East African nation practicing dual citizenship is Rwanda; the principle of dual citizenship was introduced in the Arusha Peace Accord in August 4th 1994. This was done to allow former Rwandese citizens to recover their original citizenship after obtaining a foreign citizenship and thereby losing their origin.
The dynamics of the dual citizenship in Rwanda was designed to forbid dual citizenship with France because of the political challenge it imposed on the Tutsi rebels fighting under the auspices of Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF).
This principle was also adopted in order to ensure that Rwandans will not become stateless or be forced by circumstance to accept a foreign nationality.
BURUNDI
In May 2001, the new Nationality Code by Burundi's Government was adopted and promulgated with intention of expanding the 1971 Nationality Code.
Burundi just like Rwanda another new country member in the East African community, adopted dual citizenship for main purpose of helping its former citizens in exile under political refuge to return and be recognized as citizens yet again.
The new code recognizes the principle of dual citizenship; the move was to reinstate back the status of Burundians who had found asylum in foreign countries and, under the former citizenship legislation, lost their nationality of origin.
As a pre-cursor to expand the 1971 Nationality Code by recognizing the acquisition of Burundi citizenship through birth, through presumption of law, through marriage to a Burundian citizen, and through re-acquisition by simple declaration.
KENYA
According to the Kenyan Citizenship and Immigration Act of 2011, dual citizenship was enacted and commenced on 30th August 2011 to enhance constitutional provisions on citizenship, nationality, and immigration.
It is estimated that Kenya has the biggest number in comparison to other Eastern African countries. Kenyan citizens in the Diaspora are mostly in Australia, United States of America, United Kingdom and South Africa.
This has brought in tremendous amount of foreign exchange inform of remittances. It is this economic foundation that hatched the move to enact dual citizenship in to law.
At the moment, the new law allowing Kenyans in the Diaspora to enjoy the benefits of dual citizenship has a lot to address in terms of short-comings in this process of implementation.
An article published by the online news called "The Nairobi Law monthly", hinted that after promulgation of the new Kenyan constitution, implementation of some of the key provisions of the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act remain uncoordinated and haphazard effectively serving to deny many Kenyans living abroad their right to dual citizenship.
Much of the confusion pertains to the status of those Kenyan citizens that obtained foreign citizenship prior to the promulgation of the new constitution by other means other than marriage to foreigners.
For Tanzania, the immigration issue needs to seriously be resolved as it affects both non-nationals and Tanzanian nationals. The economic benefits that come with dual citizenship may improve the life standard of Tanzanians. Equivalently, national and foreign policies should be taken into consideration as Tanzania updates her immigration laws.
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