Barke issuing birth certificates to parents from Kilifi county. HAKI center works with the county governments to mobilize and distribute birth certificates to grassroot areas and areas where accessing government offices is a challenge as way of ending statelessness in Kenya.
“I educate women on the importance of birth certificates and encourage to follow up with the registration center to ensure their children don’t miss out on important things due to lack of birth certificates.” ; In Kenya, there are different groups of stateless persons such as the, Pemba, Galjael, Shona, as well as groups of individuals of Burundian, Congolese, Indian and Rwandan descent. Other groups that are at risk of statelessness are the Nubians and some people of Kenyan Somalis whose access for Kenyan identification documents is limited. The members of these communities “belong” to Kenya because of the existing and longstanding ties with the country however they do not have Kenyan citizenship.
The number of stateless persons in Kenya is not known. An estimate of 18,500 is being used following the registration of the Makonde in 2016.