The foreign-born made up 13 percent of Côte d’Ivoire’s population at its independence in 1960
(ibid., 3). The country’s first nationality law allowed foreigners who were present at that time to
acquire Ivorian nationality within a year, and children (with foreign parents) born after 1960 were
allowed to naturalize by declaration before reaching adulthood (ISI 2014, 62 ; ISI 2019, 5; Adjami
2016, 17). Children of unknown origin were also presumed to have been born in the country
and, therefore, to be eligible for citizenship (ISI 2019, 4). However, very few foreigners naturalized
under this law (Adjami 2016, 3).
In 1972, the nation’s nationality laws were amended to eliminate the ability of children of foreign
parents to naturalize by declaration. In addition, the provision granting citizenship to children
of unknown origin was repealed (ISI 2019, 4-5). Furthermore, the transmission of nationality to
foreign spouses was restricted (ISI 2014, 62). Despite these changes, President Felix HoupouetBoigny granted foreigners rights similar to those of citizens, although the state did not formally
acknowledge their nationality (Adjami 2016, 19).
The mid-1990s saw a period of increased political and economic instability, culminating in a
2002 civil war. Starting in the mid-1990s, the government began to deny identification cards and
citizenship to many individuals of foreign origin (Adjami 2016, 11, 47-48, 74; ISI 2014, 62). Côte
d’Ivoire’s civil registry system is weak, and many populations living along the border, children of
unknown parentage, refugees, and returnees following the civil war were also denied citizenship
or identification (Adjami 2016, 48-52).
Since 2013, the Ivorian government restored the right of foreign residents living on Ivorian
territory at the time of independence, and those born in Côte d’Ivoire between 1961 and 1973,
to acquire nationality through declaration. As of 2018, however, many remain stateless or at
risk of statelessness (ISI 2019, 1-2). This policy also does not address the situations of returning
refugees, refugee children born abroad, and the children of unknown parents (Adjami 2016, 4852).
Persons from Côte d’Ivoire whose ethnicity is Burkinabé, Malian, or Guinean are potentially
stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness.
Several groups from Kenya are potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness. Most
of these groups are descendants of migrants from other countries that settled in Kenya in the
1930s during the British colonial period. The largest groups include the Pemba of Mombasa,
whose ancestors came from Zanzibar in present-day Tanzania; ethnic Somalians such as the
Galjeel tribe that settled in northeast Kenya in the 1930s; the Nubians, descended from Sudanese
ex-servicemen in the British army; and Shona with ancestry in Zimbabwe (Adam 2009; Lochery
2012; ISI 2014; Ndubi 2017).
Kenyan nationality law has historically required that groups with foreign origin submit detailed
documentation of their ancestry in order to register as citizens (DOS 2017e, 26). Many could
not furnish documentation and were rendered stateless. Ethnic Somalis faced particularly tight
scrutiny, including a screening campaign in 1989 that made some Somali groups that had resided
in Kenya for generations stateless (Manby 2009, 258; Lochery 2012).
In 2011, Kenya enacted a new citizenship law that establishes a procedure through which stateless
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