By Raymond Jaravaza<\/p>\n
FOR the last 59 years, Ms Rita Kasichi, a woman of Malawian origin born in Mhangura in 1965, has not been able to travel back to that country to visit her extended family since she could not acquire a passport.<\/p>\n
That will soon change after the Malawian Embassy embarked on an exercise to register people like her as dual citizens of the Southern African country and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
Officials from the Embassy of the Republic of Malawi have been stationed at a local church in Nguboyenja suburb for the last five days \u2014 from last Sunday to yesterday \u2014 to assist Bulawayo residents of Malawian origin register as dual citizens of both Malawi and Zimbabwe.<\/span><\/p>\n The embassy officials have been to Gweru, Gwanda, Harare and other small towns in a bid to try and reach out to many people of Malawian descent interested in acquiring that country\u2019s travelling documents, something that has been a pipe dream for Ms Kasichi and her brother Mr Enock Kasichi.<\/span><\/p>\n Ms Kasichi told Chronicle that she was declared stateless at the age of 25 years, a predicament that she lived with for years.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBeing declared stateless was the most difficult period of my life because I could not acquire a national identity document (ID), could not get formal employment or even open a bank account.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI had to resort to informal trade to make a living and take care of my two children,\u201d said Ms Kasichi.<\/span><\/p>\n In October 2014, after years of living as an undocumented citizen of both Zimbabwe and Malawi, she took the most difficult decision of denouncing her Malawian citizenship in order to acquire local documents.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was given two options with the first being to denounce my Malawian citizenship to acquire a Zimbabwean ID, although I would still be considered an \u2018alien\u2019 or to go back to Malawi and live there continuously for five years before registering as a citizen of that country,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n