POLICY BRIEF > The Journey of Shona in Kenya / October 2024 Who are the Shona? The Shona originally came from Zimbabwe and migrated to Kenya as missionaries majorly between the 1950s and 1970s, settling in the Greater Nairobi area. According to community elders, the Shona were issued certificates of registration under the Alien Restriction Act upon arrival. However, a change in the Registration of Persons Act of 1978 prevented them from accessing identity cards. As a result, most of those who were among the first wave of arrivals do not hold valid legal identity documents. At the same time, Zimbabwe and Zambia do not consider them as nationals since many of those who were born there did not have their births registered and lost all traces of their ancestry since they never returned, hence rendering them stateless.[8] Subsequently, they settled and assimilated with the local Kikuyu community which welcomed them. Since their arrival, they have practiced wood carving for men and basket weaving for women as their primary economic activity outside of preaching activities. Ten individuals from the Shona community were granted Kenyan citizenship on 12 December 2020 and a further 1,649 were recognized as Kenyan citizens and issued with registration certificates on 29 July 2021. ► Box 1: Data Sources The primary data for this report come from a comprehensive 2024 socioeconomic survey conducted by UNHCR which recontacted households which were initially surveyed in 2019, prior to the Shona acquiring nationality. The follow-up survey aimed to capture the transformative impact of citizenship on the Shona community in terms of employment, education, income, and access to essential services, while also incorporating new modules on social cohesion, community engagement, and civic participation to better understand the broader integration of the Shona into Kenyan society. The 2024 survey provides rich insights into the Shona’s post-citizenship journey and the challenges and opportunities they face as newly recognized citizens of Kenya. The findings are complemented by the 2019 household survey of the Shona community, conducted jointly by UNHCR and the World Bank[8] establishing a baseline of the Shona community’s socioeconomic conditions while they were still stateless. This study revealed significant disparities in access to services and opportunities compared to Kenyan nationals, highlighting the detrimental effects of statelessness on employment, financial inclusion, and educational attainment. These findings informed policy recommendations that ultimately contributed to the recognition of the Shona as Kenyan citizens in 2020-21, providing a crucial foundation for evaluating their postcitizenship outcomes. Additionally, insights were drawn from the Kenya COVID-19 Rapid Response Phone Surveys (RRPS),[9] conducted between 2020 and 2022, which included the Shona as a distinct stratum. The RRPS monitored the impact of the pandemic on vulnerable groups, capturing critical data on employment disruptions, income losses, and food insecurity during the crisis. The Shona community in Kenya has faced significant socioeconomic challenges, exacerbated by their stateless status and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before acquiring citizenship, Shona households faced a 24 percent higher likelihood of living in poverty compared to the urban Kenyan population and were more likely to reside in larger, overcrowded households. Although primary school enrollment rates were similar to those of their Kenyan counterparts, many Shona children struggled to transition to secondary education. Limited access to formal employment, driven by a lack of legal documentation, has forced many Shona individuals into self-employment or informal work. Even with high employment rates within the community, this does not translate into reduced poverty, as most of the employment is low-income and lacks stability.[8] www.unhcr.org 3