C AS E ST U DY
Since 2013, paralegals at Namati,
the Open Society Justice
Initiative, and Nubian Rights
Forum’s citizenship program in
Kenya have gathered data about
discrimination as people applied
for documentation, then used it
to show the existence of illegal
discrimination. They found female
applicants experienced a longer
wait for documentation. They also
found that delays in issuance of
late birth certificates were causing
problems for students who could
not take crucial tests without them.
Two policy briefs featuring the data
have been submitted by the Open
Society Justice Initiative, which
represented the Nubian community
in litigation before the African
Committee of Experts on the Rights
and Welfare of the Child.
Now these organizations are
working with additional partners
in other parts of Kenya, and all of
the partners use a common case
form to gather data across all
sites. It is expected that data from
multiple sites across the country
will strengthen national advocacy in
the future.
the implementation of important decisions that resulted from strategic
litigation. Case management databases are key for this analysis.
Using data to drive advocacy campaigns and demonstrate the scope of
a problem can also increase participation in collective action, allowing
more people to identify their own experience as part of a pattern and join
community-led movements to address issues affecting the group. Even
paralegal programs with a fairly narrow focus and range of data have
created large-scale community-level and policy change, including for
people the programs do not directly serve.
ETHNICITY
AVERAGE
TIME FOR
GOVERNMENT
TO PROCESS
LATE BIRTH
CERTIFICATE
NUMBER OF
CASES
Luo
23 days
14
Luhya
37 days
34
Nubian
45 days
400+
Kamba
22 days
5
Kikuyu
11 days
5
Kisii
19 days
3
AVERAGE TOTAL TIME REQUIRED TO PROCESS (DAYS)
DATA-DRIVEN ADVOCACY MATERIALS BASED ON DATA FROM NGO NUBIAN RIGHTS FORUM
125
100
75
50
25
0
MALE
FEMALE
GENDER
A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y
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