By Shaban Omar @Peopledailyke<\/p>\n
It is a new year, but for Esther Butui Ndam\u00adbara from Kwale County, there is little to cel\u00adeb\u00adrate. For all her 42 years, Ndam\u00adbara born and raised in Kenya and belong\u00ading to the Rundi com\u00admunity, she has lived without recog\u00adni\u00adtion from the State.<\/p>\n
Like many oth\u00aders from her com\u00admunity, she remains State\u00adless. Ndam\u00adbara, who is also the national chair\u00adper\u00adson for Kenyan Rundi com\u00admunity said she inher\u00adited State\u00adless\u00adness from her great-grand\u00adpar\u00adents, who arrived from Bur\u00adundi in the late 1940s and 1950s to work as shamba boys before set\u00adtling along the coast.<\/p>\n
The Rundi began push\u00ading for recog\u00adni\u00adtion at the same time as the Makonde and Pemba com\u00admunit\u00adies, yet while the Makonde gained cit\u00adizen\u00adship in 2017 and the Pemba in 2023, the Rundi were left behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were together with the Makonde and Pemba com\u00admunit\u00adies, but unfor\u00adtu\u00adnately they were gran\u00adted cit\u00adizen\u00adship and we are still strug\u00adgling,\u201dndam\u00adbara says.<\/p>\n
Fif\u00adteen years since their quest began, the Rundi com\u00admunity is still fight\u00ading to belong. The lack of cit\u00adizen\u00adship remains a daily bur\u00adden.<\/p>\n
Ndam\u00adbara said they can\u00adnot obtain birth cer\u00adti\u00adfic\u00adates or national iden\u00adtity cards, doc\u00adu\u00adments cru\u00adcial for access\u00ading health\u00adcare, edu\u00adca\u00adtion, formal employ\u00adment, and the right to own prop\u00aderty.<\/p>\n
For many Rundi fam\u00adil\u00adies and oth\u00aders, it means gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtions being locked out of oppor\u00adtun\u00adit\u00adies and basic rights that most Kenyans take for gran\u00adted.<\/p>\n