Focus on: Citizenship for the Makonde in Kenya

Extract from: Statelessness Monthly Bulletin October 2016

Members of the Makonde community in Kenya, after 40 years of statelessness, have finally found recognition as Kenyan citizens. The Makonde people say they were born in Kenya after their forefathers arrived in the country in 1936 and were recruited to work on sisal and sugar farms owned by European settlers in Kwale county. They were, however, not seen as one of the 42 tribes of Kenya when the country gained independence in 1963 (Daily Nation). The community consists several thousand individuals and has faced much injustice.

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