Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

“It is very unsettling that you can actually feel that you belong to the place, but still suffer discrimination...”

--Yousuf Ibrahim Diab, Secretary General of the Nubian Council

This sentiment is not uncommon among Kenyan Nubians living in the Kibera, one of the largest slums in the capital Nairobi. Despite living in the Kibera for more than 100 years and qualifying as citizens under Kenyan law, the Kenyan Nubians have been treated as aliens, often denied citizenship. How can people who consider Kenya their homeland be denied equal citizenship and rights? It is essential to first understand how the Nubians came to live in Kenya and became second-class citizens.

In the early 1900s, Sudan was under the control of the British Empire. The colonial British army forcibly conscripted the Sudanese people, the Nubians, to fight in British East Africa including present day Kenya. However, the Nubian people were not granted citizenship and were merely considered British subjects under colonial rule. Once in Kenya, the Nubian people were assigned to a military reserve known as Kibera. The 4,197 acres of Kibera were divided into 397 plots of land and permits to occupy and build a home were granted to Nubian individuals, but titles were never granted. From the beginning the exact rights of the Nubian people were not concrete or definable. In a report known as the Carter Land Commission Report of 1933 stated:

“The legal position of the occupants of Kibera appears to be that they are tenants at will of the Crown and the tenancy is liable to termination by the Commissioner of Lands. On the other hand we cannot agree that they have no rights in equity. We consider that Government had a clear duty to these ex- askaris either to repatriate them or to find accommodation for them... In our judgment they ought not to be moved without receiving suitable land elsewhere and compensation for disturbance, and we consider that a similar obligation exists in respect of their widows, sons who are already householders at Kibera.”

The Carter Land Commission believed the government had a moral obligation to settle the Nubian people and many stayed on the Kibera. There were some who asked the British government to repatriate them to Sudan. Due to the lack of citizenship the Nubians could not return on their own. The British refused claiming the Sudanese government would find the proposal unacceptable, even though the Sudanese government was still under the control of the British at that time. Even if the Nubians could return to Sudan, they no longer had any ties with Sudan and no land to return to. The Nubian people were trapped in Kibera, without citizenship and property rights.

In 1963, Kenya declared independence from Britain. The question of Nubian citizenship in the newly independent Kenya remained unaddressed. Government officials treated the Nubians as aliens, trying to justify their lack of action by arguing that Kenya was not their ancestral homeland, they could not be granted citizenship. Without citizenship the Nubians claim to land have never been recognized by the Kenyan government. Various statements have been made since that time in support of recognizing the legitimate property rights of the Nubians including a promise from 2007 made by the President of Kenya to the Nubian Council of Elders. The President promised a collective title deed for 780 acres of Kibera, this promise has yet to be fulfilled. Compare the 780 acres in 2007 to the original 4,197 acres in 1904. Since 1970, migrants have been flooding the Kibera in search for work in Nairobi. Without recognized property rights much of their land has been parceled off leaving the Nubian without enough land for subsistence farming posing a serious threat to their food security.

The larger problem for the Nubians is a lack of Kenyan citizenship that essentially pigeon holes them into marginalized society. The process of obtaining citizenship is long and complicated and often nearly impossible for young Nubians. They are required to go to through a process called vetting to receive their identification documents while non-Nubians are able to provide an ID of a parent to receive their paperwork. The vetting process requires the Nubian candidate to produce documentation from their parents and grandparents that often does not exist. The candidate is then put under questioning by a “vetting committee” and forced to swear an oath and pay a fee. Even after going through the vetting process many never obtain their ID cards and therefore cannot be considered for citizenship. Without citizenship and proper identification the Nubians are denied equal access to employment, voting and traveling and remain extremely poor and marginalized from the rest of mainstream society. Many Nubians struggle to break free from their poverty and destitute as Adam Hussien explains:

"I graduated in 1996, and my first employment came in 2007 after 10 years of struggle… It just shattered me. I actually stopped being enthusiastic about many things Kenyan. I cannot understand and nobody to date has ever explained why I had to do that."

Article 19 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (1981) states, “All peoples shall be equal; they shall enjoy the same respect and shall have the same rights. Nothing shall justify the domination of a people by another”. How can the Kenyan government continue to discriminate against the Nubian people while the international law they ratified in 1992 prohibits such a crime? The Nubian people are confined to a life of destitute in a state that refuses to grant them rights and mobility. Wouldn’t it be in Kenya’s best interest to allow these people a chance to prosper and contribute to Kenyan society? It is unclear what immediate threats the Nubian people pose to Kenya or why Kenya refuses to accept them as citizens when they have been living on Kenyan soil for the past 100 years. Perhaps there is some great answer the Kenyan government as yet to release but until then Kenyan Nubians survive on the fringes of society, hoping for a day with acceptance and prosperity.

Works Cited

"The Nubian Community in Kenya v. The State of Kenya." Open Society Justice Initiative. Web. .

McKenzie, David. "Kenya's Nubians: Outsiders in Their Own Country - CNN.com."CNN.com International. Web. 18 Sept. 2011. .

Kenya's Nubians: Then & Now. Web. 18 Sept. 2011. .