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 the different parts of the country. One of the partners had already developed a one pager that guided the paralegals on how to plan their session. We identified this as a best practice and thought of how to enhance it by adding more content while at the same time simplify the contents and make it interesting for the participants. This inspired the use of cartoon illustrations and infographics. The other goals were: o More engaging and increase the learning by the participants o Give support to paralegals during meetings o Ease the work of the paralegals o Reduce on the costs of stationery since they are re- usable o Ensure that the paralegals empower the clients about their rights and relative citizenship laws o The paralegal guide in booklet version was to help the paralegal refresh their content all the time before a community meeting or going for any out reach. We have so far rolled out the content with two partners in Nairobi and the Mombasa with only one partner remaining that we aim to reach early April. The roll-out involved a short session on how to use the materials. The flip chart highlights: o Relative national and international laws on citizenship o Entitlements of a citizen o Importance of registration of ID cards, passports, birth and death certificates o Application process and timeline of the different documents o The last part is a call to action where the community identifies what they can do to bring change. This publication is also available in Swahili, which can be accessed here.