UNHCR and the Kenya Human Rights Commission Kenya Dialogue on Gender Equality, Nationality and Statelessness Overview Discrimination against women in nationality laws is a major cause of statelessness. Fortunately, it is also a problem that is in decline around the world. Kenya is one of 12 countries that have reformed their laws since 2003 to allow women to confer nationality to their children on the same basis as men. On 2 December 2014, UNCHR and the Kenya Human Rights Commission held a dialogue with Kenyan women and their families. The purpose of this discussion was to understand how and to what extent Kenyan women are benefitting from provisions in the 2010 Kenyan Constitution and the 2011 Kenyan Citizenship and Immigration Act, which provide for gender equality in the ability of women and men to confer their nationality to their children and spouses. The aim of the dialogue was to record the testimonies of participating women; identify any obstacles that stood in the way of the effective implementation of gender equal provisions in the 2010 Constitution and the 2011 Citizenship Act; translate the key challenges and viable solutions into recommendations for improving the effectiveness of nationality legislation; and to record and promote good practice examples. Background: Gender equality, nationality and statelessness in Kenya Under the 1969 Kenyan Constitution (amended in 1985), Kenyan women and men could confer Kenyan nationality to their children born in Kenya on an equal basis. However, only Kenyan fathers could confer nationality on children born abroad. This meant that Kenyan women who had children overseas with non-Kenyan men would not be able to pass on Kenyan nationality to their children. If these children were unable to acquire another nationality because their fathers were unable or unwilling to take steps necessary to confer their foreign nationality, or where their fathers were stateless or unknown, the children would be left stateless. The new Kenyan Constitution which came into force in 2010 addressed this problem by replacing the previous provision which discriminated against women with the following: “A person is a citizen by birth if on the day of the person’s birth, whether or not the person is born in Kenya, either the mother or the father of the person is a citizen.” The 2010 Kenyan Constitution applies this provision with retroactive effect so that children born to Kenyan mothers abroad before the new Constitution came into force are also to be considered Kenyan nationals. However, the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act of 2011, places a limitation which only permits Kenyan mothers or fathers whose children are born abroad to confer their nationality to their children as long as they themselves are Kenyan citizens by birth. Under the previous Constitution, only Kenyan men were permitted to pass on their nationality to their non-national spouses. Constitutional and legislative reforms in 2010 and 2011 addressed this discrimination by giving Kenyan women the right to confer their nationality to their Kenyan spouses.