STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY Pemba and Comorian migrants from Zanzibar The island of Pemba, the northern island of the Zanzibar archipelago, lies very close to the Kenyan coast. During the period of the Omani and then Zanzibari Sultanate, the coastal strip was also ruled from Zanzibar, a status that retained some recognition in Kenya during the British colonial period, by the separate status of the coastal strip as a protectorate rather than a colony. There are extensive cultural links and continuing intermarriage between the islands and the coastal region. Although there are cases where the Tanzanian citizenship of Zanzibaris resident on Pemba island has been challenged on the ground that the person is Kenyan, it is generally easier to confirm Tanzanian citizenship because of the legal history of nationality in Zanzibar. Tanzania does not allow dual citizenship; however, as noted above, the Tanzanian immigration authorities take the common-sense position that a person with a theoretical right to claim another nationality (for example through one parent) but who has never lived in the other country or made any attempt to claim identity documents there, is not because of that unexercised right to be denied Tanzanian citizenship. However, for those born and resident in Kenya with family connections to Pemba, it can be very difficult to obtain Kenyan ID documents if they have a theoretical right to Tanzanian citizenship, even if they have never claimed documents from Tanzania and also have a right to Kenyan citizenship, and even though Kenya has permitted dual citizenship since 2010.193 Pemba is known to be a centre of opposition activity to the Tanzanian government, which creates additional sensitivities over the status of this group. There is also a community of Comorian descent in Kenya dating back to the early 20th century, mainly drawn from the Comorian community in Zanzibar. As in Zanzibar (see below, under heading on Tanzania), their status under British rule in Kenya as “native” or not was somewhat ambiguous. Immigration to Kenya of people of Comorian descent increased after the Second World War and again after the Zanzibar revolution of 1964. During the period in which the first incarnation of the East African Community was in existence (1967-1977), this process was facilitated by free movement between Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. Many of these Comorians have integrated into the Kenyan Swahili population, where they face the same difficulties in obtaining ID cards as many others in the coastal region where additional identity checks are applied (see box pp. 32–33). But others, especially those resident in the inland regions, may also be at risk of explicit denial of citizenship by the Kenyan immigration authorities, and equally unable to claim Tanzanian papers.194 Descendants of Zimbabwean missionaries In Kiambaa, on the outskirts of Nairobi, there is a community of people of Zimbabwean and other Southern African descent, mainly Shona-speakers but fully integrated into the local community. They are followers of the Gospel of God Church founded in 1932 by a Zimbabwean, Father Johane Masowe, born in what was then Southern Rhodesia in 1914. Missionaries expanded the church to other parts of Africa, and a branch was established in Kenya during the 1960s, registered by the government of President Kenyatta, and allowed to preach and recruit. Even if some members of this community were present in Kenya in 1963, they would not have automatically become Kenyan on independence; however, most arrived after the independence constitution was already in force. The majority of those who came to Kenya—who themselves had passports issued by the British colony of Southern Rhodesia—have now died, but their children and grandchildren born in Kenya are still living in Kiambaa and elsewhere across Kenya, numbering around four thousand in all. Members of the community were issued different forms of permit at different times, but “alien” cards issued under President Moi expired in 2007 and have not been replaced. This community is not recognised as Kenyan, and its members face severe problems because of the lack of identity cards for adults. Although their children are admitted to the primary and secondary schools, without birth certificates and ID cards they are unable to progress to tertiary education, enter formal employment or 193 Wanja Munaita and June Munala, “Identity and Articulations of Belonging: A Background Study on the Pemba of Coastal Kenya”, UNHCR, 6 April 2016. 194 Gillian Marie Shepherd, The Comorians in Kenya: The Establishment and Loss of an Economic Niche, PhD Dissertation, London School of Economics, 1982. UNHCR / September 2018 49