KUWAIT CITY (Dispatches) – Kuwait has revoked the citizenship of a prominent Shia cleric and five other individuals, including activists and a political analyst, the latest in a sweeping campaign that has stripped tens of thousands of people of their nationality since early 2024.
The official gazette, Kuwait Alyoum, published the decrees on Wednesday. Among those affected is Sheikh Hussein Al-Maatouq, a leading Shia cleric and former secretary-general of the National Islamic Alliance, a major Shia political group in Kuwait. 
In May 2026, Kuwait’s State Security Criminal Court sentenced Al-Maatouq in absentia to five years in prison with hard labor on charges related to inciting sectarian strife.
Also stripped of citizenship were political analyst Muhammad al-Mutair, human rights activist Lulwa al-Husainan, and Abdullah al-Saleh, a prominent opposition figure based abroad who had previously been granted amnesty.
Al-Mutair said he was not surprised by the decision, describing it as expected given “the worst political period in Kuwait’s history”.
Al-Husainan, a vocal critic of Interior Minister Fahad al-Yousef, has reportedly faced significant targeting by authorities in recent months, with several of her family members detained.
The revocations are part of a broader campaign that has seen citizenship stripped from more than 70,000 individuals since 2024, according to a UN expert, who said the policy has had “devastating and disproportionate consequences on women and children”. 
Authorities have described the effort as a review of nationality files to address “fraudulent” acquisitions, but rights groups have raised concerns about arbitrary deprivation of nationality without judicial review.
In June 2026, Kuwait’s parliament amended the nationality law, granting the interior minister authority to revoke citizenship in cases involving state security, crimes of dishonor, or activities deemed harmful to state interests. The amendments also stripped foreign wives of Kuwaiti men of automatic citizenship rights.
The legislative change has further alarmed expatriate communities and mixed-nationality families, who fear that even long-standing family ties to the country can now be severed at the discretion of a single minister.