Over one thousand stateless people in Kenya are marching to the country’s capital in the attempt to secure citizenship. They are seeking a meeting with the country’s president Uhuru Kenyatta to discuss matters related to their status.
The stateless people in Kenya include the Makonde, originally from Mozambique; Wapemba, originating from Tanzania; and Warundi from Burundi. Most of them fled the fled civil wars in their countries in the 1950s and the 1960s, but some are descendants from migrants who arrived in Kenya during the colonial era.
A part of Kenya’s stateless applied for South African citizenship in 2015, which disqualified them from their claim to the Kenyan one.
For an overview of citizenship regulation in Africa, read Bronwen Manby’s comparative study on citizenship law in Africa.