Acquisition of nationality through naturalization Combined advocacy efforts to improve the implementation of the registration procedure STEPS IN 2014 Since 1995, the Makonde advocated to be recognized as Kenyan citizens.105 However, implementation of the reformed citizenship legislation remained slow. The Makonde (and other stateless communities) remained without access to civil documentation including birth, marriage and death certificates. UNHCR identified that a general obstacle to efforts to regularize nationality status was a lack of specific information on affected populations.106 To address this shortcoming, UNHCR conducted a study in October 2014 to “[c]ollect specific and quantifiable data on all dimensions relevant to the definition of the nationality status of the Makonde population in Kenya”.107 Throughout 2014, UNHCR provided training on statelessness to government and civil society stakeholders. UNHCR also convened the first National Roundtable on Statelessness in Kenya on 3 December 2014 to reflect on the current statelessness situation and identify the best way forward. The 52 participants at the National Roundtable represented different Government departments108, UNHCR and civil society organizations. This was an opportunity for advocates to raise concerns that although the Nubian community was increasingly able to access nationality documentation in recent years, the situation had not improved for other stateless and at-risk populations. UNHCR presented the preliminary findings of its study on the nationality status of the Makonde to raise awareness of the low level of access to documentation, with only a 105 Kazungu Samuel and Fadhili Fredrick, ‘For the Makonde, challenges abound a year after receiving Citizenship’, Daily Nation, 26 March 2018, available at: https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Challenges-abound-for-the-Makonde-community/10564358542-lqp9qrz/index.html 106 UNHCR Kenya, Integrated but Undocumented: A Study into the Nationality Status of the Makonde Community in Kenya, February 2015, 3, available at: https://www.khrc.or.ke/mobile-publications/equality-and-anti-discrimination/68-makondecommunity-assessment/file.html 107 The study was conducted in partnership with Haki Centre, Kenya Human Rights Commission, Haki Africa and Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa. See Integrated but Undocumented: A Study into the Nationality Status of the Makonde Community in Kenya, February 2015, page 3, available at: https://www.khrc.or.ke/mobile-publications/equality-and-antidiscrimination/68-makonde-community-assessment/file.html 108 The following Government departments were represented: the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the National Registration Bureau, the Department of Immigration Services, the Department of Children Services, the Department of Refugee Affairs now Refugee Affairs Secretariat, the Office of the Attorney General, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, the National Gender and Equality Commission, the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution, the County Commissioner of Garissa and Assistant County Commissioners of Mombasa, Tana Delta and Wajir where stateless populations were known to reside. 70 U N H C R > G P P A C T I O N 1 : R E S O LV I N G E X I S T I N G M A J O R S I T U AT I O N S O F S TAT E L E S S N E S S