Kenyan Citizenship through Marriage

Application for dual citizenship is certainly not a formality (although it does appear to be, on paper). 

One of the more challenging aspects is that you must have a Certificate of Good Conduct from Kenya Police and you can't apply for that until you have resided in Kenya for over 6 months.  This means that the (renewable) Single Entry Visa will not work, so you must apply for another type of permit to get you to this stage, such as a Class K (retirement) permit. 

I have been told that applications for dual citizenship, by foreigners have to be approved at government minister level and once the applications are received, they take ages.  Certainly, I fairly recently knew of two people who had been waiting for two years.

Permanent Residency would also be worth considering.  The above steps with regard to the Certificate of Good Conduct would have to be followed.   Foreigners have been granted this and the application process takes around a year and a half, I believe.

Technically, you could probably make the application via the Kenya High Commission, but I would recommend making it in Kenya.  By the way, you cannot live in Kenya (as you can in some other countries), pending the outcome of your application.  To remain there, you must have a valid visa, or permit at all times.

I think that finding a helpful contact at Nyayo House (Immigration HQ) is valuable...........my wife is Kenyan and we have been married for 21 years.  She is dual Kenyan/British and was recently told at Immigration that she 'lost' her Kenyan citizenship when she married me, because in marrying a foreigner, she 'belonged to him and his country'!  She was told that she will have to apply to get Kenyan citizenship back, despite continuing to hold (and renew) a Kenyan passport. 

I was also told (this was about 2 years ago) that I should have applied for a Dependants Pass and because I never held one, the only permit that I was eligible to apply for was a Class K, for which I made a successful application.

I don't know how the ongoing government crackdown on foreigners will affect things, going forward - I understand that there is a discrepancy between the number of foreigners in Kenya and those that are registered.  There is a checking and verification process going on at the moment.

This lawyer is an immigration specialist and gives sound advice:

https://fathershandltd.com

Good luck!