Paralegal Experiences with Citizenship Rights in Kenya
Published: 5/Dec/2024
Source: Namati
In Kenya, many communities experience discrimination based on their geographic location, ethnicity, and religion. As a result, they do not have equal access to basic nationality documentation and basic government services. This is worse when one does not know their rights and entitlements under the laws of the country. While these laws are not perfect, knowledge of the protections they provide is beneficial. Where they may be lacking, awareness of the laws surrounding citizenship can guide Kenyan communities affected by discrimination who advocate to shape them better so that they offer enough protection.
To bridge this gap, Namati has been working closely with community-based organizations in areas that face gross discrimination to recruit and train community-based paralegals. These paralegals have been our foot soldiers who have handled over 30,000 cases from 2013 to-date. From these cases there have been many lessons learnt for the project team and the paralegals themselves. The continuous learning and reflections have also led to tremendous growth of the paralegals. In turn, the paralegals have transferred what they’ve learnt to the communities they work with who are now advocating for a more just system.
This impactful work led to the idea of this publication. It provides a platform for paralegals to reflect and share their stories of working in this field of legal empowerment. They self-reflect on how far they have come and how much they have grown. It also gives them a platform to reflect on their roles in seeking recognition for their communities and the movement around equality and non-discrimination in regards to Citizenship rights in general. The stories in this publication are written by the paralegals themselves. They reflect on the laws that they have learnt and their experiences of working with their respective communities.
This publication is also a good indicator of the impact of our continuous paralegal capacity building. Some of these stories have been published on mainstream print media and others on blogs. This is a compilation of those and several more.
Download: https://namati.org/news-stories/paralegal-experiences-with-citizenship-rights-in-kenya/