By Oscar Gakuo Mwangi<\/p>\n
In this article, I argue that statelessness in the Kenyan context needs to be seen as simultaneously a psychological and a physical condition determined by spatial-political boundaries rather than legal ones. This challenges the traditional approach to statelessness which sees it as primarily a legal matter of citizenship. In particular, I use the example of Somalis experiencing statelessness in Kenya in order to consider statelessness as a result of, and contributing to, ungoverned spaces, I also examine the implications of this for understandings of security. Kenya is a unique case study because of its proximity to Somalia, which is often referred to as a \u2018collapsed state\u2019.<\/p>\n
Spatial-political understandings of statelessness The space referred to in this case is ungoverned. This is a physical space or territory within a political entity, namely the state, but where the state is virtually absent. Violent armed non-state actors thrive in such spaces<\/a><\/strong> because of the absence of law and order. To this extent individuals, groups of individuals, norms, and so forth, in such spaces are not defined and determined by formal-legal institutions but rather by the intersection between politics and security.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The importance of analyzing statelessness from a spatial-political approach rather than a legal one, is that it contributes to a much broader understanding of statelessness in the context of the relationship among politics, security and physical space. According to this approach<\/a><\/strong>, statelessness is determined by the interplay of politics and security in the space where one lives not by citizenship.<\/p>\n