43 Dual citizenship Under the old Constitution, no one could be both a Kenyan citizen and citizen of another country. The only exception was that children who were citizens of Kenya and another country (perhaps because one parent was non-Kenyan and the law of each parent passed their citizenship to their children) did not have to decide which citizenship to keep until they reached adulthood. Such a person who reached the age of 23 without having given up the other citizenship automatically ceased to be a Kenyan citizen . A Kenyan citizen, who by a voluntary act took another citizenship, automatically lost the Kenyan citizenship (automatically becoming a foreign national by marrying a foreigner did not have this result, but that would be very unusual). The most obvious voluntary act would be to apply to become a citizen of that other country. No act of renouncing Kenyan citizenship was required. To remedy this, the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 has in place provisions for dual citizenship. The amendment was inspired by the struggles of persons married across various nationalities, children of a Kenyan and foreign national, by the struggles of trans-border communities and by the struggles of pastoralist communities that often crossed boarders to graze cattle. Can dual citizen hold a public office? For one to hold public office, one must always put the interest of the Republic of Kenya first. Dual citizens, being of two nationalities, had a conflict of interest, and therefore they cannot hold public office. CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONALITY RIGHTS CASE DIGEST