SOLVING STATELESSNESS From the beginning, the process was on a strange legal footing. The vast majority of the population that was to be naturalised had been born in Tanzania. Acquisition and loss of Tanzanian citizenship is governed by the Tanzanian Citizenship Act No 6 of 1995, which, under Section 4 (2), explicitly provides that those born on the territory of Tanzania after 26 April 1964 are citizens of Tanzania from birth. Yet in practice, Tanzanians, both lawyers and others, who have been questioned on the subject, have asserted that the children of refugees are not citizens, although no cogent legal argument as to why this would be the case in light of the present law has been offered. In practice, therefore, Tanzania proceeded to naturalise these individuals without addressing the apparent legal reality that the vast majority of them should have had automatic access to citizenship from birth. As the situation of this group appeared set to be resolved, there was little incentive on the part of the former refugees or others to challenge the legal characterisation. Yet seven years after a relatively straightforward process of naturalisation had been initially announced, neither the status of “refugee” nor “citizen” could be clearly applied to this group. The majority of those who had applied for naturalisation had been successful, in as much as their identification numbers were displayed in public places in the settlements announcing that they had been accepted for naturalisation. On that basis, they formally renounced their Burundian citizenship and swore an oath of allegiance to the Tanzanian State. However, by mid-2014 only 744 former refugees, all of whom were living in the capital, Dar es Salaam, had received their certificates. The rest were living without documents and, therefore, without evidence of their new status. The government argued that the process was never completed: “The mere fact that certificates were not issued to the applicants connotes the incomplete part of the process.”18 Thus, having renounced their Burundian nationality, they were denied their Tanzanian nationality in practice (despite the fact that the acceptance might be argued to have completed the naturalisation process). They were thus facing down a situation of statelessness. As a result, the former refugees were left in a prolonged state of uncertainty. As one former refugee woman living in Mishamo settlement told researchers in 2012, “[w]e don’t know who we are at 18 Written communication with Refugees Department, Ministry of Home Affairs, March 2013. On file with IRRI. 81