STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY face similar difficulties.145 Without recognition as Burundian these children have little or no access to education or healthcare, cannot own land and are not free to leave and enter the country. Children separated from their parents in various circumstances are another major category, including children of unknown parents, street children, orphans, and trafficked children from another country who are apprehended by the authorities but cannot be returned to their country of origin because their families cannot be traced. While some countries, including Rwanda, have in place a clear system for the documentation of abandoned babies or infants, others do not have procedures on how to handle these cases. Nonetheless, even in countries where there is no formal provision on children of unknown parents, such as Tanzania, an abandoned infant will usually be presumed to be a national if there is no apparent evidence of foreign parentage. But this is not always the case, especially for older children. In Kenya, the 2010 constitution and 2011 legislation provided for the first time a presumption of citizenship for the children of unknown parents. However, the Citizenship and Immigration Regulations of 2011 contain no guidance on how to implement the presumption. While some magistrates began issuing court orders in relation to abandoned infants, this is not systematic. With support from an institution, children of unknown parents who are believed to be Kenyan can usually obtain late birth registration and identity documents as Kenyan; but children who appear to be Somali or who are old enough to report a name indicating that they have come from another country are not recognised in this way.146 In Uganda, the children of the abducted “wives” of members of the Lord’s Resistance Army who were born outside the country have been recognised as Ugandan if their mothers are alive and have returned to Uganda; but if their parents have died the children may not know sufficient information to show where they are from.147 There may also be some descendants of Tanzanian soldiers, from the time that the Tanzanian army briefly occupied the country in 1978-79, toppling the government of Idi Amin, following his occupation of Tanzanian territory, who face similar difficulties. Children adopted from another country may also be left outside the provisions of the law, as noted under the heading on adopted children. In Tanzania, for example, the law is silent. If a Tanzanian family adopts, for example, a child of Burundian refugees, there is no procedure other than formal naturalisation (both extremely costly and highly discretionary) to grant the child Tanzanian citizenship. Stateless child born in Tanzania “Miranda” is a Kenyan woman born in Kenya to a Kenyan mother and a father from a Southern African State. She lives and works in Tanzania. She had a baby in Tanzania with a man from the Caribbean who then left her. She wanted to give her child a nationality. She went to the state in Southern Africa to attain a nationality for her son, but was denied one because the father of her own child is not from that state. She then turned to Kenya but her son was denied nationality in Kenya as well, because of gender discrimination in the law at that time. Considering he was born in Tanzania, she turned to the Tanzanian authorities but they also rejected her plea for her son’s nationality. Her son is now stuck in Tanzania without a nationality.148 145 Information from International Refugee Rights Initiative, by email August 2016. 146 Interviews, Nairobi and Mombasa, July 2015 and June 2016. 147 Interview, Victor Ochen, African Youth Initiative Network, Kampala, 9 August 2016. 148 Summary of presentation by Donald Deya, Pan African Lawyers Union, in The Right to Nationality in the East African Community, East Africa Civil Society Organisations’ Forum (EACSOF), 2 December 2015. Before the adoption of the 2010 Constitution and the 2011 Act, children of Kenyan mothers born outside Kenya did not acquire their mother’s citizenship. If “Miranda” can establish her own Kenyan citizenship, the child would now in principle also be entitled to Kenyan citizenship. 40 UNHCR / September 2018