Makena Makena is from the Mijikenda community. She is a Kenyan citizen by birth and received her national identity card when she was 21 years old without any problems. Makena got married to Dinis, a man from the Makonde community, in 1995 in a church ceremony and was issued with a marriage certificate. They have since had 5 children together. It was only after they married that Makena realised the full extent of the disadvantage that her husband faced as a result of being stateless and lacking citizenship documents. She says: “After I talked to my relatives and they told me how difficult it would be for me to pass on Kenyan nationality to Dinis, we decided to submit an application for a Kenyan national identity card for him by falsely saying that Dinis was my younger brother. We went as far as submitting the application with a photograph and having Dinis’ fingerprints recorded. But when he faced the vetting committee, someone there recognised him as being a Makonde and his application was thrown out on the spot.” Makena feels very bitter about the way in which her husband has been treated. As she explains: “My husband was lucky to have been allocated a stall to sell his handicrafts at one of the big hotels on the coast, but he was later evicted for not having proof of any nationality. I tried to register the stall in my name but they told me that I couldn’t because I was a woman.” Dinis also entered into a partnership to sell plastic containers, but after the goods were sent to him he was unable to access the shipping documents because he did not have the identity documents to prove that he was a national. This resulted in him being dropped from the partnership. Dinis has even been imprisoned for two months for not holding any proof of nationality. Makena was not aware of the fact that in Kenya, women and men have equal rights to pass their nationality to their children and spouses. Upon being informed of this fact, Makena said that “these laws are like the aroma of good food to a starving person – completely out of reach”. She feels that the denial of her right to pass her nationality to Dinis has resulted in them living in poverty when they could be living a decent life. For example, Makena says that “when Government officials give out food relief, they demand to see proof of nationality from the head of the household. As Dinis is considered to be the head of the family we are often left hungry.” Makena feels that she cannot enjoy the benefits of the law until officials at the local level and members of the vetting committee are trained on how to implement it. She says: “We live the life of the blind, because without a national identity document for my husband, we can have no vision for the future.”