After years of advocacy by the Namati Kenya citizenship program together with partner paralegals and grassroots communities, the Kenyan government, in May, issued a new policy document addressing discrimination for Kenyans seeking ID documents. On May 1st, 2024, the government began implementing new ID registration guidelines aimed at abolishing vetting committees during the national ID card application process meaning Kenyans seeking to get national ID cards including those from certain ethnic and religious groups will now not have to appear before vetting committees when applying for an ID. With this, the Government of Kenya took an important step, by recognizing ID vetting as discriminatory and acknowledging changes are needed to align the ID registration system with the Constitution.
However, the new guidelines apply only to border and cosmopolitan areas, creating an automatic inequality in the system. Further, Kenyans applying for an ID card must provide proof of name, age, and citizenship, obtain an introduction letter from their chief, have a parent come physically to put a thumbprint on the application form and be part of a list of applicants reviewed by the intelligence service. We are yet to celebrate this new process as we remain skeptical and fear the new guidelines might turn out worse than the vetting that we knew – still allowing for arbitrary and discriminatory requests that deny certain Kenyans identification documents.
Vetting has been systematic across Kenya for decades, imposed on ID applicants only because of their ethnic or religious background. Even when an applicant provided all necessary supporting documentation, he or she would have to appear before a vetting committee composed of registration and security agents that wielded unchecked power in determining whether applicants get ID documentation. An applicant could wait months or longer to appear before the committee, where he or she would face random questioning and excessive requests for documentation unrelated to citizenship as defined in Kenyan law, often leading to further delays or denial of ID cards.
Watch this video for more context on ID vetting:
Namati and partners began to mainstream discussions around exclusion in nationality rights where before it was shrouded in secrecy under the blanket cover of national security. When the work began, many national and grassroots organizations shied away from challenging this discrimination.
Through community organizing, Namati created a platform for highlighting the discriminatory and arbitrary nature of ID vetting, pushing discussions to the national stage. We utilized legal empowerment for communities and elevated the conversation to directly engage policymakers to end ID vetting. In 2015, one of our partner staff Fatuma Abdul Rahman tabled a question on vetting during the presidential debates. Vetting and other forms of exclusion were central to our campaigning around the Huduma Namba digital ID, building a public consciousness around the issues. Community-driven petitions and paralegal case data submitted as part of fact-finding led to Parliament recognizing vetting as discriminatory. Over the years, concerns on ID vetting became central in public discourse leading to the presidential candidates in the 2022 general elections accepting that it was indeed a national issue that needed a resolution. As a result, President Ruto’s party, in its manifesto, adopted marginalization in IDs as a critical action point in his administration. We have since run a focused campaign against vetting on social media and television – see below!
Vetting is discriminatory and impedes millions from accessing Kenyan nationality despite having a clear right to it under Kenyan law. Other ‘mainstream’ communities in Kenya do not face vetting when applying for ID documents and ID applications can take a day with issuance in 21 days.
Read our in-depth statement on the abolishing of vetting committees.
With less than a month of implementation of the new ID registration guidelines, it is still too early to determine if it will provide lasting protections for communities who’ve faced discrimination and have been locked in an ongoing struggle to acquire nationality documentation. We are working with community paralegals to monitor how this is being implemented and if it is leading to any meaningful change in access to documentation.
We also remain willing to work with the Government of Kenya to implement the necessary legislative and regulatory changes that would guarantee an equal and fair identification system for all Kenyan citizens, no matter their ethnic and religious background or region of residence.
Social media is a strong tool for organizing. Through human-centered and consistent, strong visual content, Namati Kenya has leveraged social media (primarily X, formerly Twitter and TikTok) as a powerful model for digital organizing. Running effective campaigns and sustaining engagements across social media audiences requires a mixture of strong visual content such as graphics and short-form videos, curated and targeted messaging that inspires action, and activating a broad base of supporters who quickly and consistently repost/reshare Namati Kenya’s content to their networks. These approaches have strengthened our advocacy as well as visual and digital presence.
We have also been very strategic with our messaging – highlighting diverse voices who can combat the typical security narratives that the government promotes and who can bring new allies into the movement.
All these require deliberate and robust planning and investing in relationship building and supporting communities and paralegals through solid training on messaging/utilizing social media platforms and strategizing together for organic and authentic engagements that ramp up the power and visibility of our campaigns.
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