Jus Tribalis: Statelessness, Ethnicity and Registration in Kenya

Abstract

Many cases of mass statelessness arise from discrimination against groups. Accordingly, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (‘UNHCR’) and others sometimes pursue group forms of recognition in campaigns to remedy statelessness. In this article, I consider the implications of such an approach by examining its effects in Kenya using the cases of Makonde, Pemba, Shona, Nubian and Gajje’el ethnic communities. I argue that securing citizenship is neither purely political and group-based nor purely legal and individual, but rather that these conceptions of citizenship are interdependent, that there are both risks and opportunities in this entanglement and that the management of both requires attention to a cultivated vagueness that characterises the role of ethnic identity in registration and citizenship in Kenya. I conclude with an argument for more vigilance regarding the use of ethnic identity in citizenship bureaucracy and for caution in the export of this group-based campaigning strategy to other national contexts.Many cases of mass statelessness arise from discrimination against groups. Accordingly, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (‘UNHCR’) and others sometimes pursue group forms of recognition in campaigns to remedy statelessness. In this article, I consider the implications of such an approach by examining its effects in Kenya using the cases of Makonde, Pemba, Shona, Nubian and Gajje’el ethnic communities. I argue that securing citizenship is neither purely political and group-based nor purely legal and individual, but rather that these conceptions of citizenship are interdependent, that there are both risks and opportunities in this entanglement and that the management of both requires attention to a cultivated vagueness that characterises the role of ethnic identity in registration and citizenship in Kenya.