STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY The Registration of Persons Act does not specify what documentation shall be produced to prove citizenship and the practice varies quite widely.114 People living in areas where vetting applies have to produce additional documentation, even if applying for an identity card with a birth certificate identifying a parent and that parent’s identity card. In 2011, the High Court found that a requirement established by a circular issued by the National Registration Bureau for “Asians and Arabs” to produce their parents’ and grandparents’ birth certificates was unconstitutional, and ordered the NRB to cease applying these requirements.115 The Director of the NRB states that this has been done, and the circular withdrawn.116 There have been recent efforts by the NRB to ensure greater access to identity documents in the counties of the former North Eastern Province, especially to facilitate cash transfers as part of the national Hunger Safety Net Programme, and many more cards have been issued.117 Nonetheless, many people in the border zones entitled to Kenyan citizenship remain without national identity cards.118 Critics of the vetting process do not object in principle to the idea of vetting a person’s eligibility for citizenship where that may be in doubt, but rather to the ways in which vetting is carried out. Those subject to vetting do not understand why they must face additional vetting even if they have all the official documents normally required; nor why vetting is applied only to people filling particular profiles, rather than to anyone who does not have existing documents recognising citizenship or providing proof of the relevant facts. There are concerns that the standards applied vary across the country, since there are no set criteria for what constitutes acceptable proof of citizenship, a vagueness that also allows for discriminatory application of the law in practice. For example, although vetting does not in principle apply to renewal of a document, this does not appear to be always the case. While senior officials responsible for the process are clear that the vetting procedures are about ensuring the integrity of citizenship administration, not about good character, there is also the danger that in some cases people may be rejected for a national identity card not because they are not Kenyan but because they are in trouble with the local authorities in some way. Proof of nationality A national ID card will usually indicate nationality as one of the pieces of information shown on the face of the card. National identity cards have, however, different levels of evidentiary value in law, and in most countries are not legally proof of nationality, even in those countries where an identity card is mandatory only for nationals and is commonly taken to form such proof. In line with the usual system in civil law countries, the nationality codes in both Rwanda and Burundi provide within the text of the law for the courts to decide questions related to nationality and for the relevant procedures. The Rwandan law also establishes that a Rwandan birth certificate is proof of nationality of origin, and more generally that an identity card, passport, or citizenship certificate are proof of Rwandan nationality; while the burden of proof of Rwandan nationality lies with a person whose nationality is contested, the burden of proof is reversed if that person already holds a Rwandan identity document.119 The 114 Interviews, Nairobi, June 2016. 115 MUHURI and Another v. Registrar of Persons and others, Constitutional Petition No. 1 of 2011, High Court at Mombasa, 18 February 2011. 116 Interview, Nairobi, 2 June 2016. 117 Managed by the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) under the Ministry of Devolution, with financial support from DFID and Australian Aid. See “ID Registration for Safety Net Cash Transfers: HSNP experience in facilitating national ID card registration”, 23 June 2015; updated data available at: http://hsnp.or.ke/index.php/dashboards/at-a-glance. 118 Interviews, Nairobi and by phone, June 2016. 119 Organic Law Relating to Rwandan Nationality No. 30 of 2008, Sections 25-28. UNHCR / September 2018 33