Securing Citizenship Rights in Kenya
The challenge:
Citizenship discrimination is a fundamental barrier to justice. Discrimination can be explicit in laws and policies or take the form of arbitrary requests and unequal treatment when applying for basic identification documents. This is a daily reality for millions of people around the world. Because of their ethnicity, religion, gender, language, or other identity, many people are denied citizenship, or have citizenship rights by law but are denied access to IDs.
Without basic documents like birth certificates, ID cards, or passports, people cannot access essential services or participate in governance. Citizenship discrimination, therefore, is a threat to democracy.
Citizenship discrimination and its effects are often well known and tolerated at the highest levels of government. Furthermore, many governments are hastily layering a digital ID system on top of a flawed and discriminatory foundation, threatening to leave millions of people without ID cards even more behind.
Our solution:
Namati and our partners support Muslim-majority ethnic groups in Kenya and Urdu-speaking communities in Bangladesh to combine the power of law and the power of organizing. With help from community paralegals – many of whom have faced citizenship discrimination themselves – members of marginalized communities know, use, and shape the law to overcome discrimination in accessing legal identity documentation.
Acquiring an ID card is only the beginning. Drawing on the leadership and learning that emerge from grassroots struggles, Namati, our partners, and communities affected by discrimination push for more just laws and practices. Our ultimate aim is to end discrimination in the citizenship and identification systems.
The work in Kenya and Bangladesh informs our global work. Drawing on our own lessons and the experience of members of the Grassroots Justice Network (which Namati convenes) we foster a community of practice applying legal empowerment approaches to issues of citizenship rights, access to documentation, and inclusive transitions to digital identity. We learn from one another across borders and advocate together to inform global norms.
Grassroots Impact
Paralegals have supported over 30,000 people to secure ID documents, ensuring they can access their fundamental rights as citizens. The paralegals’ work at the grassroots level has been foundational to build a movement to secure an inclusive ID system for all Kenyans. Our movement has won significant victories including:
In 2024, the process of vetting applicants for national ID cards was abolished after years of campaigning by Namati and partners. For decades, vetting committees had been required for certain ethnic or religious groups in Kenya.
In 2023, minority and formerly stateless communities, whose IDs were not properly recorded in the national ID database, had their information updated as a result of cross-community pressure led by Namati and partners.
During the presidential election in 2022, our campaigning brought attention to issues with ID vetting, and candidates agreed that it was a national problem needing a solution.
Listen to the stories of Miriam Ramadha, Mohammed Hassan, Habiba Abdi, Aden Farah in their own voice. With the support of Namati and partner paralegals, thousands have been able to get IDs and find hope.
Stories, Blogs & News
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Hassan’s Journey to Becoming a Citizenship Rights Advocate
Hassan, a Nubian youth living in Kibra, narrates the challenges he went through in his quest to get a Kenyan national identity card (ID) and how Nubian Rights Forum, a Namati partner, helped him finally get an ID. His struggles, shared by thousands of other members of the same community, made him see the important role of a community paralegal, which he eventually became to help others.
Video: Namati Kenya Honored with the 2021 Global Pluralism Award
On February 23, 2022, the Global Centre for Pluralism, an international research and education centre located in Ottawa, Canada, announced the three winners of their 2021 Global Pluralism Award. We are pleased to share that Namati Kenya’s citizenship program was a recipient of this honor, alongside Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel and Puja Kapai, a social justice advocate working in Hong Kong.
Video: Denied Identity in Kenya
National identity documents like an ID card are what enable people to enroll in school, access government healthcare, and vote. Under the Kenyan Constitution, every citizen has the right to these documents, yet over five million people face discrimination when trying to secure them.
Huduma Bill: Opportunity to Shape Law on Identification Systems and Inclusion
Previous Huduma Bills 2019 and 2020 failed to address key issues of inclusivity raised in court petitions, court orders, and memorandums civil organizations and the public submitted — but now we have the chance to shape these in the Huduma Bill 2021.
CSOs call for full integration of human rights in the deployment of digital ID systems
Governments around the world are moving rapidly towards digital identification systems. These schemes can make public services more efficient, but they can also jeopardize the right to privacy and exacerbate systemic discrimination. Civil society organizations are playing critical roles to ensure identification initiatives reflect the lived experiences of the people most affected by these systems and respect human rights.
Kenya’s New Digital IDs May Exclude Millions of Minorities
Millions face hurdles in obtaining documents to get a biometric ID card that will be required to function in the country. Without one, “you are totally a living dead,” a human rights advocate said.
Case Filed to Stop New Digital ID Register in Kenya
Namati partner organization Nubian Rights Forum filed a case in the High Court of Kenya to stop rollout of Huduma Namba bill
Nationality Rights of the Nubian Child – Namati and Partners Submit a Policy Brief to ACERWC
Without proof of citizenship, children cannot realize their right to education and other basic primary services. They are subjected to social and material exclusion, the effects of which will follow them into and throughout adulthood.
The Paralegal Approach to Statelessness
Community-based paralegals can bridge the gap between law and real life. They use knowledge of law and government, and skills like mediation, education, organizing, and advocacy to seek concrete solutions to instances of injustice.
UNHCR Features Paralegals and Citizenship in Bangladesh
How a Bangladesh court ruling changed the lives of more than 300,000 stateless people.
Featured Resources
A Community-Based Practitioner’s Guide: Documenting Citizenship and Other Forms of Legal Identity
Today, 1.1 billion people around the world lack legal identity documentation. Without it, they cannot vote, access healthcare, or go to school—and are at risk of becoming stateless. Entire communities—especially the poor and members of minority groups—may lack documentation, leaving them legally and politically invisible. The lack of ...
CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS IN KENYA
The Kenya Citizenship program has developed Flip charts in Kiswahili and a smaller booklet version as paralegal guide. The vision of the flip charts is to guide the paralegals during community meetings. This was as a result of the inconsistency in the content of community meetings by the paralegals from ...
Vices of Discrimination: The Impacts of Vetting and Delays in the Issuance of ID Cards in Kenya
This policy brief aims to highlight the plight of Kenyans who face difficulties in getting identity cards due to their ethnicity. It sheds light on how the discretionary and discriminatory processes they endure delay the issuance of their ID cards and further demonstrates how these delays endanger the wellbeing of ...
Program Partners
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Nubian Rights Forum
Nubian Rights Forum (NRF) is a human rights organization that advocates for the rights of the Nubian ethnic minority in Kenya.
Council of Minorities
Council of Minorities (CoM) is a platform for minority and indigenous communities in Bangladesh.
Haki na Sheria
Haki na Sheria exists to empower marginalized communities to understand, respect, promote, demand and effectively claim their human rights and obligations in pursuit of an equitable society.
Haki Center
Haki Center was founded in 2006 by a group of young and vibrant human rights activists from the Coast and North Eastern Provinces of Kenya, to promote the progressive realization of human rights in the region by ensuring communities’ ownership and active engagement in the struggles for justice, good governance and equity.
ParaNET
ParaNET is a civil society organization that is engaged in active advocacy around the attainment and enjoyment of basic human rights among pastoral communities in Kenya.