Cassadee Orinthia YAN International Comparative Jurisprudence. 2024, 10(1):94-111. inability to obtain citizenship also prevents them from voting or participating in decision-making procedures within their host countries. Global action to end statelessness – a campaign advocated for by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with 66 participating states including Kenya (UNHCR, 2020) – reflects global concern about the persistence of statelessness issues. The Global Plan for Action 2014–2024 was implemented in order to commit to ending statelessness by the end of this period (UNHCR, 2014). However, globally, the number of stateless persons has since increased, and a significant increase in displacement and forced relocation, a major cause of statelessness, was observed between 2011 and 2019 (UNHCR, 2019). The UNHCR has estimated the number of stateless persons to be 10 million (UNHCR, n.d.-a; see also, Rajan, 2023); however, some studies (Cole, 2017; Sköld, 2023) estimate the total number of stateless persons worldwide to be as high as 15 million. Although statelessness is a global issue common to many countries, the cause of the statelessness problem in African countries, such as Kenya and South Africa, has some similarities. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain demographic records from the region or country of origin. This is the first step in proving one’s identity. For instance, in Kenya, many Makonde, Nubians, Galjeel, Pemba Waata, Coastal Arabs, and Shona descended from Somalia, Burundi, Congo, and Rwanda are second- or third-generation refugees fleeing from wars and conflicts in their countries of origin. In practice, these people are stateless since they are not entitled to citizenship in Kenya, notwithstanding the fact that they were born and raised there. This is because they cannot register their birth, or even their existence, in their parents or grandparents’ country due to local instability, inaccessible local bureaucracy, and state succession or restoration. Moreover, their country of origin may no longer exist. Article 14(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Kenya (2010) guarantees the right to citizenship by descent to those born in Kenya, who must at least have one parent who is a citizen of Kenya. Article 15 of the Constitution outlines the acquisition of Kenyan citizenship through naturalization: a non-citizen of Kenya can register to become a Kenyan citizen if they have lived in the country for 7 years, or have been married to a Kenyan citizen for 7 years (see also, Kenya Citizenship Act, 2010; Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act, 2011). However, Shona men and women who are married into other Kenyan ethnic groups cannot attain citizenship by naturalization because Shona is not a recognized Kenyan ethnic community (Wagalla, 2019), and applicants for naturalization must be from a recognized ethnic community. Many people from unrecognized ethnic communities, particularly those of Nubian and Shona descent, face significant challenges in obtaining Kenyan citizenship (Abuya, 2021). Similarly to Kenya, birth within South Africa does not grant an automatic right to South African citizenship. For a person to be registered as a South African citizen at birth, at least one parent must be a South African citizen (South Africa Citizenship Act, 1995, Article 3(1)). Citizenship by naturalization requires one to have been a resident in the Republic for at least 8 years (Article 5(1)). While South Africa is a party to international agreements and regional protocols aimed at eradicating statelessness, there remains a pressing need for a comprehensive legislative framework to address the problem effectively. The country’s citizenship regulations prioritize nationality based on bloodlines, making it difficult for stateless groups, such as children born to foreign parents, to obtain legal recognition. Therefore, stateless people in South Africa frequently risk arbitrary arrest, restricted access to healthcare and education, and significant challenges in finding and maintaining stable employment. Through desktop research, this article reviews the legal frameworks in Kenya and South Africa that establish the exclusivity of the citizenship laws that contribute to statelessness. The implementation of the current legal systems in both countries leads to poor registration, discrimination, and exclusion. There are similarities when it comes to discrimination against gender, ethnicity, and historical colonial rule. The situations in Kenya and South Africa 95