Parliament should investigate dubious citizenship in sport

Editor, Reference is made to the article, “Sixty players under probe over dubious citizenship” (The New Times, October 7). Citizenship is the relationship between an individual and a state in which the individual owes allegiance to the state and in turn is entitled to its protection. Citizenship may normally be gained by birth within a certain territory, descent from a parent who is a citizen, marriage to a citizen, returning refugees or naturalisation. In that case, if the 60 players in question who acquired the Rwandan citizenship but not born on Rwandan territory and do not meet the other criteria, then there must be a flaw in the system of issuing national IDs that need to be addressed with tangible measures. However, much as the Rwanda Football Federation is working together with the Police and the Immigration and Emigration Directorate on the issue, I think Parliament should also set up a committee to examine the issue in a wider perspective. This is because the issue, though it has surfaced in football, may be the case in other sports such as volleyball and basketball as well. Worse still, you may find that foreigners who come to ply the trades in Rwanda like mechanics, hair dressers, casual labourers in the cities and mostly in districts close to borders will all have access to the Rwandan citizenship in no time without the usual accepted procedures. Also assessment should be done on areas close to refugee camps to see whether they are accessing national IDs in fraudulent manner. And, with Rwanda’s entry into the East African Community and the increased movement of people from different countries in the bloc due to business and employment, a strategy should be put in place to ensure that access to Rwandan citizenship and nationality goes through accepted norms. The case of Dady Birori (or Agiti Tady Etakiama) has obviously taught us how people who fraudulently accessed the Rwandan citizenship do not owe any allegiance to the country. It is better to have few citizens who owe allegiance to the country and are proud of their nation and can do all possible to promote its values than having a host of a deceitful “citizens” that can swap allegiance according to their own interests. Franklin Gakuba Murangira

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Parliament should investigate dubious citizenship in sport