Roots Party presidential candidate, George Luchiri Wajackoyah, has denied that he has dual citizenship after a lawyer petitioned his candidature over his past parliamentary bid in the United Kingdom.
Speaking to NTV on Tuesday, July 5, Wajackoyah stated that he attempted to run for a seat in Tottenham through commonwealth citizenship and Kenya is a member of the global organisation.
He maintained that the petition was ill-intended and would flop once the UK clarifies on his citizenship.
"I have never changed my citizenship. These people ought to read. They just have to access the internet and google instead of writing to the British High Commission.
"I am a Kenyan with the highest level of academia. I tried to run for office under the third qualification as a commonwealth leave to remain in the UK. You do not necessarily have to be a citizen," he clarified.
Earlier on, city-based lawyer, Stephen Gachie, had argued that Wajackoyah could not have applied to contest for a parliamentary seat in the UK if he did not have citizenship in the country.
"We want to establish for ourselves whether indeed he is a citizen of the UK. We equally copied the letter to the IEBC to put them in the know of what we are doing.
"If he holds dual citizenship then that impairs his capacity to vie as the President of the Republic of Kenya," Gachie argued.
In a rebuttal to Wajackoyah's argument for contesting under the Commonwealth, the lawyer argued that the burden of proof lies with the law scholar to prove he does not have dual citizenship.
Gachie added that he would move to court to bar the Roots Party leader from the August 9 polls if his concerns were not addressed.
Earlier, Wajackoyah revealed that he could not be cleared to contest for the parliamentary seat because of his marital status.
"I have stood for elections in the UK. I was told you are not enough. You are not ripe enough to be a Member of Parliament for Tottenham because we have checked in this list that you have children but no wife," he stated at the time.
As per the law, Kenyans will dual citizenship cannot seek elective positions due to conflict of interest.
