Jus Tribalis

Statelessness, Ethnicity and Registration in Kenya

Abstract

Many cases of mass statelessness arise from discrimination against groups. Accordingly, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (‘UNHCR’) and others sometimes pursue group forms of recognition in campaigns to remedy statelessness. In this article, I consider the implications of such an approach by examining its effects in Kenya using the cases of Makonde, Pemba, Shona, Nubian and Galje’el ethnic communities. I argue that securing citizenship is neither purely political and group-based nor purely legal and individual, but rather that these conceptions of citizenship are interdependent, that there are both risks and opportunities in this entanglement and that the management of both requires attention to a cultivated vagueness that characterises the role of ethnic identity in registration and citizenship in Kenya. I conclude with an argument for more vigilance regarding the use of ethnic identity in citizenship bureaucracy and for caution in the export of this group-based campaigning strategy to other national contexts.

The research for this article was funded by the Australian Research Council (IN180100055). I am indebted to many people who provided very thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this article, including Bronwen Manby, Mustafa Mahmoud, Wanja Munaita, Keren Weitzberg, Marika Sosnowski, and Dalle Abraham. Thanks also to staff and students at the Peter McMullin Centre for Statelessness at Melbourne Law School, the CERTIZENS project at University of Copenhagen (especially Amanda Hammar), and the CitizenGap project at University of Amsterdam (especially Imke Harbers) who provided useful discussion on presentations of this work. Any remaining shortcomings are my sole responsibility.