Kenyan Somali refugees claim they are denied citizenship rights

Published: 19/May/2019
Source: Al Jazeera

Poor Kenyan Somalis registered as Dadaab refugees to access benefits, but say they are now being refused nationality.

by Osman Mohamed Osman

Eastleigh, Kenya – In a restaurant in Eastleigh, a noisy Nairobi suburb, Shariff Omar, a Kenyan Somali, reaches for a brown folder.

“I have managed to get some names of all the needy people in my neighbourhood,” he said, flipping through documents as he explains how he started a charity project a few weeks earlier.

“We now have to find well-wishers to help these people. They are suffering.”

Omar was born in Tana River, a semi-arid county about 500km south of Kenya’s capital. Despite his right to Kenyan citizenship, the government classifies him as a Somali refugee.

Read further: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/kenyan-somali-refugees-claim-denied-citizenship-rights-190516114837043.html

 

Themes: Discrimination, Ethnic/Racial/Religious, Nationality and Refugees
Regions: Kenya
Year: 2019