Kenya: When nationality becomes a lifetime wait
Published: 3/Nov/2025
Source: Development & Cooperation (Germany)
In the informal settlements of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, thousands of people born and raised in Kenya remain stateless. Without an ID card, they are living invisible lives in their own country. People in many other African countries share the same fate.
By Joseph Maina
In one of the low-income settlements of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, 26-year-old Fatuma Hassan keeps a well-kept stall selling second-hand shoes. Her business is doing well, but she cannot open a bank account, register a SIM card or travel outside the country. Fatuma was born in Kenya to Somali parents who fled in the early 1990s due to drought. She has lived in Kenya all her life. Yet every attempt to get an ID ends in the same response: “pending vetting.” Her documents have been pending for eight years.
Fatuma says she has visited the local registrar’s office more than a dozen times. Each time, she is asked to bring more witnesses or new letters from chiefs and elders, proofing that she belongs to the community and grew up there. “I gave up,” she says. “Even the people who helped me are tired.” Without an ID, she cannot apply for jobs, register property or even prove her existence to the state.
Across the city, in Nairobi’s largest informal settlement Kibera, 52-year-old Salim Osman faces a similar problem. His parents were Nubians, descendants of soldiers from Sudan who had been brought to Kenya by the British during the colonial era. To this day, many Nubians are denied citizenship.
Salim works as a mechanic. His workshop runs on borrowed licenses. He has tried to apply for an ID five times. Each time, the process comes to a standstill. “They keep saying they are still checking,” he says. “Checking what? I was born here. My father and grandfather were born here.”
In Kenya, there are thousands of people like Fatuma and Salim. Many of them live in informal settlements or border regions, areas where residents typically struggle to have their nationality recognised. Without IDs or passports, they cannot access public services, vote or enrol their children in schools. They live in a country that does not fully accept them and in a system that struggles to define who belongs and who does not.
Read further: https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/informal-settlements-kenyas-capital-nairobi-thousands-people-born-and-raised-kenya-remain