In Kenya, nationality is acquired by descent or by naturalization through registration.64 Provided certain conditions are met, individuals can apply for naturalization if they have been married to a Kenyan for at least seven years or have been legally resident in Kenya for seven consecutive years. Naturalization through registration is also available to children adopted by Kenyan citizens. Stateless persons, persons who migrated to Kenya before independence and descendants of such persons can acquire nationality under the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act of 2011 through naturalization by registration if they have been continuously resident in the country since independence in 1963.65 Birth certificates are the key supporting document for applications to be registered as a citizen of Kenya. Birth registration is in principle available to all children born in Kenya. It is a two-step process. First, parents need to obtain a birth notification from the hospital in which their child was born or, in case of home births, from the local administrative authority. Second, parents need to register the birth at the civil registrar’s office to obtain a birth certificate. Children born in hospitals are automatically issued with birth notifications. To certify home births, a letter signed by the local administrator, chief or assistant chief is required. Stateless persons must apply for birth certificates within 6 months of the birth, during which period no additional documentation is required apart from the birth notification. Applications for late birth registration (after six months) are at the discretion of the Principal Registrar and require the submission of additional supporting documents, such as passports, which are unavailable to stateless persons.66 Most stateless persons in Kenya live in poverty and are unable to afford transport to registration offices in a timely manner. Many are also unaware of the importance of timely birth registration. The costs of late birth registration are an additional barrier and many have been turned away by local registration and health authorities because their ethnicities are not listed among Kenya’s 44 officially recognized tribes. Measures taken The Government of Kenya, in collaboration with UNHCR and its partners, recently introduced several measures that make birth registration more accessible to historic migrants and their descendants. MOBILE REGISTRATION AND DECENTRALIZATION OF BIRTH REGISTRATION SERVICES Recognizing specific gaps in the civil registration system, the Department of Civil Registration Services (CRS) has decentralized its services and, in association with UNCHR and other partners, sends mobile registration teams to the remote areas in which many stateless communities live. In close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, CRS decentralized the process of acquiring birth notifications at county, sub-county and ward level. (Wards are the lowest administrative unit in Kenya.) As a result, all children born in Kenya, whether at home or in a health facility, should be issued with a birth notification. Birth certificates, however, are only issued at sub-county level. To assist stateless communities to overcome the obstacles of distance and cost that prevent them from accessing civil registration services, CRS collaborates with UNHCR and its partner, the Haki Centre, to deploy mobile registration stations to the areas (such as Kwale and Kilifi counties) in which most stateless minorities live, including the majority of Pemba and persons of Rwandan and Burundian descent. Between mid-2015 and mid-2017, mobile birth registration teams issued more than 11,000 birth certificates to stateless and formerly stateless persons, the majority of which were late birth registrations. Through its partners, UNHCR provides assistance to those who are unable to cover the costs of late birth registration. It also trains civil registration officers on why birth registration helps prevent statelessness. In addition to reaching out to communities in remote areas, UNHCR and its partners have continued to promote birth registration during community forums and clinic visits and encourage stateless communities to attend mobile birth registration exercises. Hurdles that need to be overcome include the low literacy levels 64 The Constitution of Kenya, 27 August 2010, Chapter 3, Article 15, at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4c8508822.html. 65 The Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act, Act No. 11 of 2011, 30 August 2011, Articles 15-17, at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4fd9a3082.html. 66 Kenya Birth and Death Registration Act, Births and Deaths (Late Registration) Rules, 1971, at: http://bit.ly/2eAgtJ0. 21 CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS