Executive Summary
Statelessness is a global challenge affecting millions of people who face multiple legal and socioeconomic deprivations that can last for generations. At least 4.2 million people live in statelessness
(UNHCR 2020).1 “The very nature of statelessness means it is difficult to determine exactly how many
people are affected, or at risk,” and therefore, the true number could be three times higher (United
Nations 2018). Without a nationality or citizenship, individuals are often denied access to basic human
rights, such as education, health, documentation, employment, marriage, and freedom of movement.
As one-third of the known stateless population are children and young adults, without remedying their
statelessness, this population is sentenced to a lifetime of social and economic deprivations.
Pursuant to its mandate to identify, prevent, and reduce statelessness, UNHCR and the Government
of Kenya have initiated steps to resolve statelessness in the c
ountry—however, socioeconomic data
gaps hinder efforts to design targeted policy interventions. UNHCR has set out the Global Action
Plan to End Statelessness: 2014–2024, and launched the #IBelong Campaign,2 resulting in the acquisition or confirmation of the nationality of more than 166,000 stateless persons. As part of these efforts,
UNHCR and the Government of Kenya (GoK) initiated a series of steps to address statelessness in
the country. Such efforts have resulted in a pledge to ensure the protection of stateless persons, the
naturalization of the Makonde community, and an agreement to naturalize qualifying members of the
Shona community. However, scarce socioeconomic information of stateless populations that is comparable to nationals prevents a deeper understanding of their living conditions, hence hindering efforts
to design targeted policy aimed at solving statelessness.
The Shona SES provides comparable socioeconomic profiles for the Shona community and nationals, while contributing toward informing a targeted response to address the socioeconomic impacts
of the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with the Department of Immigration Services (DIS) and the
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) of the GoK, UNHCR Kenya, with technical support from the
World Bank, conducted a preregistration exercise and socioeconomic survey for the Shona community. The Shona SES marks one of the first quantitative studies of a stateless population that is based
on a national socioeconomic assessment tool. The SES compares the living conditions of the Shona
community residing in Nairobi and urban Kiambu counties to the conditions of Kenyan nationals in
such counties, as well as to the national urban average.3 This approach does not attempt to establish
a causal connection between their legal status and living conditions. It does, however, provide evidence that shows strong correlations between statelessness, access to rights, and key indicators of
well-being. In addition, the SES links its findings to the results of the first wave of the Kenya COVID-19
Rapid Response Phone Surveys (RRPS) designed to assess the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID19 pandemic on nationals, refugees, and stateless persons.
1 Based on the information available from 76 countries.
2 https://www.unhcr.org/protection/statelessness/54621bf49/global-action-plan-end-statelessness-2014-2024.html
3 Results from the Shona survey are compared to those from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and its Kenya Integrated
Household Budget Survey 2015/16.
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