STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY Kenyan Asians at risk of statelessness The Bansal family204 Gurpreet Bansal was born and lives in Kitale in Trans Nzoia County in Kenya. Bansal is the child of British Overseas Citizens. He and his brother are stateless. He contacted the Kenya Human Rights Commission (the NGO, not the constitutional body) in August 2015. His email read: Subject: stateless Dear sir, my parents are British citizens but have lawfully been in Kenya their whole life, I was born in Kenya and I've studied here, I am a commercial pilot, in high distress as I am stateless, the British have refused to issue me my rights because I was born In Kenya and my parents cannot transfer their citizenship to me and at the same time the Kenyan Immigration Department has denied to give me my rights, I cannot do the basic stuff in life, I am in high distress I am unable to work, to better myself. What do you suggest me to do? I have a birth certificate and a travel document, how can I attain my citizenship? Kindly advice, as I don't know what to do anymore. Gurpreet Bansal’s father had applied for Kenyan citizenship under the special procedures for “migrants” provided by the Citizenship and Immigration Control Act 2011, but no response had been forthcoming. KHRC helped Bansal to advocate for a resolution to his case, including presenting the impact of statelessness on his family in October 2015 before Members of Parliament, the Senate Committee on Security and Foreign Affairs and officials from the Directorate of Immigration. He also took part in talks on youth and statelessness organized by the UNHCR in November 2015. His father applied for a third time under the special procedures of the 2011 Act, after two earlier applications had been misplaced. As a result of this pressure, and the advocacy of MPs, in June 2016 Bansal’s father Kuldip Bansal was registered as a Kenyan citizen, and two weeks later Gurpreet and his brother were also registered as citizens and issued with national identity cards. In his own words “I feel reborn and now life is very meaningful”. The Shah family205 Kamlesh Shah was born in 1949 in Kenya to parents who had moved there from India in 1941. His birth was not registered, and his father died in 1959, before independence. His mother died in 1968, but she did not apply for registration as a Kenyan citizen after independence, largely due to the cost of the application process; he was himself not yet an adult at that time, and so not able to apply in his own name. Kamlesh Shah has never held any papers, and has worked as a labourer without formal employment all his life. He is married with two sons, born in 1986 and 1999; only the second son’s birth was registered. In May 2013 the family applied to register as Kenyan citizens under the temporary procedures. They received an acknowledgement of the application, as of mid-2016, but no further information about their case. No update was available at the time of publication. Narinder Shah, the older of the two sons, now 30, had existed without a Kenyan national ID for 12 years: “Without documents you can’t do anything, just move your arms and legs. It is only because of support from the Hindu community that we are surviving”. 52 204 With thanks to the Kenya Human Rights Commission. 205 Interview, Mombasa, 7 June 2016. Names have been changed. UNHCR / September 2018