Lang’ata Member of Parliament (MP) Phelix Odiwour aka Jalang’o has sparked an endless discussion on Twitter after alleging that 30 million Kenya have applied for Green Cards and want to leave the country.
The former Kiss 100 presenter put up a tweet wondering why Kenyans are yearning to leave the country at the earliest opportunity that presents itself.
“30 million Kenyans have applied for the Green card lottery! Yaani only 20m of us want to live in Kenya! Is it that bad?,” questioned Jalang’o.
The tweet has, however, signaled mixed reactions from Kenyans – many dismissing his figures. A section of those who weighed into the conversation accused the legislator of sharing exaggerated numbers.
With a Green Card, immigrants can reside and even work legally in the United States of America. Green card holders are known as permanent residents.
Registration for the green card lottery program for the fiscal year 2024 (DV-2024) began on Wednesday, October 5, 2022, and will run until Tuesday, November 8, 2022.
The green card lottery program, officially known as the Diversity Visa program, is run by the US State Department and makes on a lottery basis up to 55,000 green cards available to nationalities of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.
A total of 442,966 Kenyans applied for a US green card in the Fiscal Year 2018. This was a 23 percent rise compared to 2017 when 360,023 Kenyans entered the lottery.
In 2019, 1, 800 Kenyans won Green Cards while in 2021 a record number of 2777 won the DV-2021 Green Card Lottery.
