Kenyan-born nurse Lucy Chege has formally renounced her Kenyan citizenship in favour of US citizenship.
The event took place in a poignant ceremony at the César E. Chávez National Monument in Keene, officiated by W. Patrick Lujan, the acting director of the Fresno Field Office of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Lucy Chege has lived in the US for over 16 years, having pursued higher education in the West. Chege along with 29 other people from diverse backgrounds, took an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, effectively relinquishing all other citizenship statuses.
“I hereby declare, an oath, that I absolutely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen, so help me God,” nurse Lucy Chege solemnly declared.
For Ms. Chege, the ceremony was beyond just a legal formality; it symbolized the culmination of her journey in the US, which began in 2007 when she arrived in the country for her undergraduate studies.
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The Kenyan-born nurse devoted herself to her studies until she ultimately earned a Master’s degree in Public Health, solidifying her nursing career.
“I’m a nurse by profession. I got my Masters in Public Health, and now, I’m a U.S Citizen,” she emotionally announced, with joy written all over her face.
“It’s surreal. I don’t know how to explain it. You’re kind of in a new family, but there’s a family that you know. I’m happy that I get to do this and that the U.S gets to give us this opportunity,” Lucy Chege added expressing gratitude to the American government.
Despite the bittersweet moment of revoking her Kenyan citizenship for U.S. citizenship, she has wholeheartedly embraced this important milestone in her life.
