Rwandans who have lived in Kenya for 70 years appeal for naturalisation
Published: 16/Fév/2017
Source: The Standard (Nairobi)
By David Ohito
Grandparents and parents of an estimated 500 Rwandans were moved from Rwanda to Kenya by the British colonial administration in 1940’s to work mostly in tea plantations in Kericho County and other parts of Kenya.
In 1945, those Rwandans were granted Kenyan citizenship and subsequently given Kenyan national identity cards, and later in 1975, these national identity cards were replaced by three-month renewable alien identification cards. This applied to other foreign nationalities that came under the same arrangement. Efforts to regain their citizen status has since then proved futile up to day.
Following the Makonde community’s match to the State House on October 2016 seeking the resolution of their stateless situation that they have endured for a number of decades, representatives of Rwandans in the similar situation as mentioned above went to the Rwandan High Commission in Nairobi and raised the same issue.
That meeting prompted the visit by H.E The High Commissioner Amb. James Kimonyo to Kericho on February 12, 2017 where he met and heard their grievances.
Read more at: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001229514/rwandans-who-have-lived-in-kenya-for-70-years-appeal-for-naturalization