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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: KENYA REFUGEES CITIZENSHIP (TV/R)
HEADLINE: Refugees Married to Kenyan Citizens Seek Citizenship Rights
TEASER: The Kenyan Constitution allows some foreign nationals married to Kenyan citizens to register for citizenship after seven years of marriage
PUBLISHED: 07/13/2023 at 11:36 am
BYLINE: Juma Majanga
DATELINE: Dadaab Refugee Camps, Kenya
VIDEOGRAPHER: Juma Majanga
VIDEO EDITOR:
SCRIPT EDITORS: DJones, Reifenrath
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA Original
PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_
TRT: 3:17
VID APPROVED BY: Reifenrath
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO)) [[ Rights groups in Kenya are campaigning for refugees married to Kenyans to obtain citizenship. The Kenyan Constitution allows foreign nationals married to Kenyans to register for citizenship after seven years of marriage. But they must have residency status to apply, and this policy locks out refugees. Juma Majanga reports from the Dadaab refugee camps.]]
((NARRATOR))
On a sunny afternoon in the Hagadera camp, one of several camps in the Dadaab refugee complex, Fozia Mohamed is busy at her shop.
The Somali refugee and mother of six says she has been married to a Kenyan man for more than 10 years but has yet to be granted citizenship. Lack of Kenyan documents, she says, has affected her life and business.
((Fozia Mohamed, Somali Refugee (Somali, 25 secs))
“I am running this business to support my children and family, but I can’t expand it as I’d like because I can’t travel to Garissa town or Nairobi to buy stock since I don’t have a Kenyan ID. I’m forced to wait for goods that come to the camp, which is very expensive. I have relatives in Nairobi, including some of my children, but I can’t even visit them without the ID.”
((Radio Track: Mohamed says she is running the business to support her children and
family. She says without a Kenyan ID, she cannot expand because she can’t travel to Garissa town or Nairobi to buy supplies. Mohamed says she is forced to wait for goods that come to the camp, which is expensive. She says she has relatives in Nairobi, including some of her children, but without the ID, she can’t visit them.))
((NARRATOR))
The Kenyan constitution gives foreign nationals married to Kenyans the right to apply for citizenship seven years after marriage. However, a law passed by parliament in 2011 adds an additional requirement — that such individuals must have residency status in Kenya. This locks out refugees, who do not have the same residency documents as other foreign nationals.
((Fozia Mohamed, Somali Refugee (Somali, 19 secs))
“It is pure discrimination. I am married to a Kenyan and therefore have the right to be given citizenship. But for over 10 years, I have been denied that right.”
((Radio Track: Mohamed says it is pure discrimination, because she is married to a
Kenyan and has been denied the right to citizenship for more than 10 years.))
((NARRATOR))
Haki na Sheria is a human rights advocacy group based in Garissa. It has gone to court, seeking orders to remove what it calls administrative barriers so that refugees married to Kenyans can apply for citizenship.
Mariam Jamal is a program officer at Haki na Sheria.
((Mariam Jamal, Haki na Sheria (English, 30 secs))
“In most cases, these individuals are people who have lived here. They have loved here. They have children here. So, what does it really mean for them in the long run if they cannot access citizenship, despite the fact that their entire families are based here? Where else do they have to go?
((NARRATOR))
The Kenyan government has been pushing to better integrate refugees into society, although the law blocking their path to citizenship remains in place.
Kenya’s commissioner for refugee affairs, John Burugu, says a government policy allowing refugees to live outside the camps will ease their burdens.
((John Burugu, Commissioner for Refugee Affairs (English, 27 secs))
“The social economic inclusion solves the issue of them wishing to be citizens. Because what is maybe disadvantaging them is because of what we are currently running, which is the encampment policy."
((NARRATOR))
Kenya hosts more than 700,000 refugees and asylum-seekers representing 22 nationalities, according to the Department of Refugee Affairs.
As the government moves to promote integration, refugees with Kenyan spouses, like Mohamed, are demanding what they say is their right to naturalization.
((Juma Majanga, for VOA News, Dadaab refugee camps, Kenya))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Dadaab Refugee Camps, Kenya
BylineJuma Majanga
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
