official may not be fully impartial at the hearing of the application. As this letter carries a lot of weight in the assessment process, it is of utmost importance for an applicant to receive all the support that he or she can get before the Vetting Committee. During interviews with some officials and ID applicants it was apparent that the attitude of the committee was that individuals appearing before it were foreign nationals masquerading as Kenyans. Lerato94 and Mushinga, 95 whose grandparents were born in Mozambique and Zanzibar, respectively, but whose parents were born in Kenya, stated that when they tried to acquire national IDs they were told they were not Kenyans. Mushinga was ‘told to go to Zanzibar’.96 Others claimed that officials referred to them as ‘aliens and thieves’.97 In sum, as Lerato observed, ‘the Government does not know or identify us.’98 In effect, applicants faced a huge task discharging the burden of proof. There were also serious delays in the processing of IDs, as the majority of applicants (34; 34%) and officials (19; 82%) underscored. Whilst the process should on average take about one month in rural areas99 and 18 days in Nairobi,100 it was not unusual to find applications that had taken several years to be determined. For instance, Aissatou and Thabo applied for IDs in 1997 and 1998 respectively. As of October 2009, they had neither received the document nor official communication on the status of their applications, despite the numerous trips they had made to the office where they had lodged their applications.101 Shauku’s experience shows the challenges that some face when trying to acquire an ID. Both his parents and grandparents were born in the country. His father held a Kenyan ID. However, his great grand-parents had been born in a foreign country. He first applied for an ID in 2003. All the documents that were required were submitted. When he appeared before the Vetting Committee, he was told that he was not Kenyan because on the application form he had indicated his father’s tribe to be that of his grandparents’ country: I filled out my father’s original tribe, namely, _ [of _ (country)]. The committee advised I return to my father’s home country, which I had never been to, and to apply for any official document that that country issues. The fact that I had produced a letter of support from the chief, death certificates of my parents and a copy of my paternal uncle’s Kenyan ID did not assist my application in any way. Interview with Lerato, Coast Province, 15 September 2009. Interview with Mushinga, Coast Province, 15 September 2009. 96 Interview with Mushinga, Coast Province, 15 September 2009. 97 Interview with Piet, Coast Province, 19 September 2009. 98 Interview with Lerato, Coast Province, 15 September 2009. 99 Interview with Santos, Coast Province, 16 September 2009. 100 Letter from NRB, supra, note 78 101 Interview with Aissatou, North Eastern Province, 17 September 2009; Interview with Thabo, Coast Province, 14 September 2009. 102 Interview with Shauku, Coast Province, 16 September 2009. 94 95 17 OUT OF THE SHADOWS TOWARDS ENSURING THE RIGHTS OF STATELESS PERSONS AND PERSONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS IN KENYA