The Nubian Muslim community in Kenya: an economic appraisal The Nubian Muslim community in Kenya: an economic appraisal

The Nubian Muslim community in Kenya: an economic appraisal

A book by Professor Mohammed S. Mukras-Available online from: 20 Mar 2007,
see link http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02666958108715847

The nagging question of the Nubian community in Kenya

SPECIAL
REPORT:
The
nagging question of the Nubian community in Kenya
By
Iddi Musyemi
Abdalla Sebi recalls the past as vividly as
his aging mind can. His audience is riveted on him as he recollects the bits
and pieces from back in the days.
Bit by bit he produces a picture of how his
community has been on the wrong ends with all the independent government
administrations of Kenya as long as they are concerned.
At 74 years old, you may dismiss his story
as falsified but he has the proof of his ordeals.
“I have this TLO letter which I was issued
with by PJ Browning,” he says holding out an aged A4 size white paper.
TLO stands for Temporary Land Occupation.
It is the colonial equivalent of Allotment letter issued by government to those
who wish to own a land.
In recognition of the Nubian community in
the service of British interests, PJ Browning who was the District Commissioner
in 1940s, issued the Nubian with land which they were to make their homes.
The occupation of these lands was deemed
temporary as the occupiers would be moved at the request of settlers then, Mzee
Sebi says.
Since then nothing of this community seems
to be permanent. They are always kept on the move in terms of land and
recognition of their status as Kenyan citizens.
The TLO letter, says Mzee Sebi, represents
their reserve land. He believes that like any other community in Kenya with
ancestral home, they should be given theirs where they were originally
allocated by the colonial administration in Kenya.
“Those who had small pieces of land measured
at least 3 acres,” he says. “But others had as much as 16 acres of land.
“Unfortunately during former president
Moi’s rule our lands were taken and given to squatters.”
Mzee remembers the year to be 1985 when
their lands were taken over by “squatters” forcing them to move into Nuru ya
Mbere village.
In his youth Abdalla Sebi worked as a
policeman. After retiring from the force he became a driver for a “foreigner’s
company” which he did till he retired due to age.
It was after this retirement that he went
back to the struggle for recognition of his rights and those of his Nubian
community.
“When I retired in 1992 we formed a group
to fight for our land rights,” he says.
But the old fighter has not limited his
struggles to land only.
He says he used to wonder whether the
government recognised them as Kenyans or foreigners. They pursued the
government on this question and were dismayed that during the clamour for the
constitution, their tribe was not listed in the Kenyan tribes.
“I think we are stateless because the
constitution does not recognise us,” he says.
During the last census, the whole community
as a group refused to be lumped in the “other” category as their tribe. It was
after threatening that they will not take part in the census exercise when the
Minister of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030, Wycliffe
Oparanya issued them with a letter of recognition.
“The letter promised that we would be
included in the constitution as the 43rd tribe.
“We were even given code 220 which at the
time looked like a step towards somewhere,” Sebi says but adds that nothing
more has ever happened again. Lines of disappointment run all over his face.
The current state of affairs has crippled
the community to a point they find it difficult to move forward.
They have to undergo a strenuous process of
vetting to be issued with identification cards. Those who “own” lands cannot
develop them since they cannot access loans in financial institutions to
develop themselves.
They are hardly employed in government
ministries or parastatal organisations. They are just out there on their own.
“Our children will suffer the worst if we
allow this situation to go on,” says frustrated Sebi.
Although their progress is in inches, they
are glad they are making a move.
Although few in number, significant size of
Nubians in Kenya are found in Kibera, Kibigori, Kisii, Kibos and Narok among
others. These places are where they settled in when they were brought to Kenya.
“I’ll thank God if I live to see my
citizenship right recognised,” says Sebi who is sliding into octogenarian.
He says it was a betrayal that his
grandfathers were abandoned by the colonial administration and hopes African
government are kind enough to remedy the situation.
He says he hopes to see the light of proper
citizenship before the light of day goes off on him.
“As long as I live I cannot give up on this
hope.”

Source- www.thenewdawn.info

"Kill Me Quick": A History of Nubian Gin in Kibera*

There was also increased competition from other kinds of beverages and drags: from 1947 Africans were allowed to drink bottled beer,88 though traditional alcohol continued to dominate the local market. From 1955 spirits were no longer forbidden to Africans, increasing the competition from other liquors.89 Also miraa (khat), bhang, and other "modem" drags, won in popularity, further reducing the liquor market.

As a result, more and more Nubi women stopped the distillation of Nubian gin. This process started slowly in the late 1960s, but increased significantly in the late 1970s. In the 1990s there was still a small, and continuously decreasing, number of Nubi women distilling small quantities of liquor, but the "good old days" of the Nubian gin were over.

Kibera Today

Today Kibera is a sprawling slum with possibly more than 500,000 people packed in an area of 550 acres, where the Nubi form a small (but distinct) minority of about 10,000 people.90

The liquor business, still illegal in Kenya, remains an important source of income for quite a number of women in Kibera, though not for the Nubi. Today, the "newcomers" are running the business, and these are indeed destitute women. The distillate- now called chang' aa-is, sold mainly by the glass from home (usually just one room), which during the day serves as bar, and at night as a bedroom. However, prices and income are low, and much of the profit goes to the policemen that visit almost every day for their "commission." There is nowadays also a risk for the drinkers: they can be arrested, and with all the chemicals now being used to speed up the production of chang 'aa, their lives are in danger as well. In 2000 more than 140 people were killed in one incident in Nairobi, and this kind of incident is a regularly recurring news item. Of course, in these cases one can hardly speak of chang' aa as a distillate; rather, it is simply a concoction of chemicals sold as distilled alcohol.

Though some chang 'aa is still being produced in Kibera, much of the liquor sold there is "imported" from the Mathare slums, where men have taken over the manufacturing of alcohol from women.91 The Nubi women did not suffer the same fate; their men were not interested in taking over the alcohol business, and, like many other women in the early days, Nubi women transitioned into the lucrative rental business. That option is no longer open to newcomers, who have to make do with selling cheap chang' aa, often manufactured by someone else.

Life in Kibera is not as easy as it used to be for the Nubi; whereas in the 1970s the rent from fifteen rooms was enough income to live comfortably, today this is no longer the case. Rent levels have not kept pace with food prices, and moreover, much larger families, now with married children and grandchildren, depend on the income generated by the same number of rooms as forty years ago. Unemployment is high and for many Nubi families the income from rental rooms is their only source of income. Nevertheless, many Nubi families would have been in a much more difficult situation had it not been for the "good old days" of Nubian gin, which provided the capital to build the rental rooms.

A few Nubi women (probably fewer than five) continue distilling Nubian gin according to the old recipe in Kibera, but on a very limited scale and servicing a small, regular clientele. Even though their gin is more expensive than normal chang 'aa, and they must operate in great secrecy because of the police, their business is not bad. Although in general the "good old days" of Nubian gin are over, many Nubi women who had invested in constructing rental rooms have, up to today, been able to keep their economic independence.

* Most of the information for this paper comes from interviews conducted in Kibera from 2004-2006, many with "notorious offenders" (elderly Nubi women once involved in the Nubian gin production) and former Nubian gin consumers. Quite a number of people did not want to talk about the Nubian gin, considering it a shameful (un-Islamic) part of their past; the identity of informants is therefore not disclosed here, and all informants have been given numbers which are referred to in the footnotes when quoted. Observation and interviews bring up information based on opinions, impressions, and observations voiced by respondents- it is therefore sometimes hard to quantify information or back up all statements with "hard evidence." The author would like to thank Justin Willis and Jan Kees van Donge for their advice and support.

Source- http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7573/is_200905/ai_n42041066/pg_10/

Youth must get IDs for 2012 poll to be fair

Youth must get IDs for 2012 poll to be fair

By Hassan Ole Naado

Responding to a question put across to him about how long he would take to start delivering some results if appointed a commissioner with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Mr Mohammed Alawi Hussein said he would need about three months to familiarise himself with the workings of the Commission.

Mr Alawi, a lawyer by profession and currently working for the Kenya Ports Authority, was fielding questions when he faced the panel interviewing applicants for the position of commissioner to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

However, the chairman of the interviewing panel, Dr Ekuru Aukot, heartily responded that there would be very little time for induction and familiarisation, therefore those who will be appointed IEBC commissioners will have to hit the road running because the country is very much behind schedule as far as putting in place the necessary structures to conduct elections next year.

This example is cited not because of the performance of Mr Alawi who was being interviewed, but because of Dr Aukot’s correct observation that the country is behind schedule in terms of establishing the IEBC.

Given the enormous task that the electoral and boundaries body is supposed to undertake before next year’s historic elections, we agree with Dr Aukot that the country is dangerously behind schedule on this matter, and if nothing is done to speed-up the process, it might be virtually impossible to conduct the 2012 general election under the new constitution.

It is important to remind ourselves that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is established under Article 88 and has two main functions. The first main function being that of conducting or supervising referenda or elections to any elective body or office established by the constitution, and the second being that of delimitation of electoral units which involves reviewing the names and boundaries in the manner specified under Article 89.

Given that the 2012 general election must be conducted under provisions of the new constitution, there is no denying the fact that if the structures needed to conduct next year’s poll are not put in place by the end of this year, then Kenyans may either have to postpone the elections or conduct them under hastily assembled structures. If the latter is the case, then Kenyans run the risk of conducting ineffective polls next year and thereby erode the little confidence that the people may have in the electoral process—bearing in mind the sham that was the 2007 election.

However, as much as efforts to speed up the establishment of the IEBC are highly appreciated, the Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance (KMYA) has noticed that the country seems to have ignored a very important component without which next year’s elections may not be described as free and fair—the issue of national identity cards.

As the government and other organisations pay attention to the establishment of the electoral body in preparation for the historic elections, nobody seems to be giving top priority to the issuance of ID cards to the millions of young Kenyans who will be eligible to vote in 2012.

The question then is; if we, as a country, succeed to put in place an effective electoral body by next year, who then do we expect to vote in the 2012 elections if the young people who form the majority of the electorate don’t have national IDs?

Have we suddenly forgotten that people need IDs in order to vote? And what would be the purpose of the IEBC if people who are supposed to participate in the elections are not able to do so?

These concerns may sound frivolous at this time, but we can be sure that we shall feel the gravity of their implication next year when we shall be confronted by a huge number of young Kenyans demanding to know why they are being disenfranchised merely because they don’t have IDs.

And this is why we suggest that, as the process to establish the IEBC continues, similar efforts should be directed to ensuring that the millions of young Kenyans who don’t have IDs get them as quickly as possible so that when the voter registration exercise commences, nobody who is eligible to vote is left out.

According to statistics by the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons, close to four million young Kenyans may not register as voters for the 2012 because they are not likely to have acquired IDs by then.

This is a very serious issue because by failing to issue national IDs to over four million young applicants, it looks like the government is just about to deny the same number of Kenyans their constitutional right to participate in the 2012 elections.

We have put emphasis on the issue of IDs because, as an organisation that addresses issues affecting the youth, especially Muslim youths, KMYA wishes to bring to the attention of the Minister for Immigration and Registration of Persons , Mr Kajwang’, the specific obstacles that Muslim youth encounter when applying for IDs.

For no apparent good reason, Muslim youths are required to undergo an extra, and often, very humiliating and frustrating vetting process when applying for national IDs.

For example, why should Muslim youths who have been born and brought up in Nairobi be required to go back to the ancestral districts of their parents in order to apply for IDs? This requirement is very discriminatory because it assumes that all Muslims in Nairobi are migrants.

But the question is; where does the government expect Nubian Muslim youths of Kibera to go in order to find the ancestral districts of their parents? Has the government suddenly forgotten that Nairobi has always been the home of the Nubian community that resides in Kibera? Or, is the government suggesting that the Nubians of Kibera are not Kenyans?

We ask these questions because it looks like Muslim youth in Kenya have become victims of unexplained discrimination, collective punishment, suspicion and distortions when it comes to issuance of national ID cards.

A look at a number of pending ID applications by Muslim youths reveals discrepancies that raise eyebrows. For example, application No. 136A 0630440 by Saad Ali Saad, a Nubian youth of Kibera, was rejected because someone at the Registrar of Persons affixed a wrong photograph on the application!

According to explanatory notes attached to Saad’s application, the information of the applicant is authenticated through fingerprints and other documents submitted by the applicant, but the application has a picture of a stranger affixed on it. The same has happened to application No. 136A 0630488 by Ismail Ali Ramadhan—also a Nubian Muslim youth from Kibera whose information is authenticated through fingerprints and other supporting documents but with a wrong picture affixed on the application.

The common discrepancy in the two applications is the wrong picture being affixed on the authentic application form. Interestingly, in both cases the strange pictures are of Somali youths—meaning than someone at the Registrar of Persons intended to use the information of these two Nubian applicants to issue national IDs to other people.

And because of the discrepancies which are not of their making, both Saad and Ismail have been directed to go for another round of vetting. Unfortunately, the vetting is held only once a month, meaning that these two Muslim youths will have to wait longer to get IDs—if at all they will ever get them.

Such obstacles have made it very difficult for many youths in Kenya to acquire IDs, and at any forum where Muslim youth, especially, gather to discuss issues affecting them, it is common to hear many lament over the frustrations they undergo when seeking an ID.

The tedious, time-consuming and at times ridiculous process many have to undergo is no laughing matter. Among the many documentary evidence youth are asked to present to the Registrar of Persons include birth/school leaving certificates, death certificates of parents/guardians (if deceased) among others—all these in an effort to establish the authenticity that the applicant has Kenyan ‘roots’.

That aside, it is also emerging that besides tabling the above documentary evidence, youth have to contend with the so-called vetting committees which are meant to establish and verify the authenticity of applicants being Kenyan.

These vetting committees comprise of village/clan elders, youth and women representatives, the provincial administration (District Officer / District Commissioner), Criminal Investigation Officers, officials from the Registrar of Persons, just to mention but a few.

Whereas KMYA appreciates the fact that matters of national security are delicate and should be handled with utmost care so that undeserving people don’t acquire Kenyan identification documents, the vetting committees are themselves not transparent hence defeating the very purpose of their establishment.

For instance, Ali is a Nubian elder who sits on a vetting committee in Rift Valley. Despite being a father to 16 grown up children, three of his grandchildren have not been able to get Kenyan IDs because they “fail the eligibility test.”

“Our grandchildren are the most affected yet we, being their grandparents, are Kenyans. They have presented all the documentary evidence required that includes birth and school leaving certificates to the committee and have elders confirmed to know them. But they are being taken round in circles by being sent to local chiefs who again refer them back to the same vetting committee.”

Noor and Hassan are also members of such committees and they too express frustrations.

“It is ridiculous for Muslims to be pitted against themselves. It defeats the purpose of the whole process that even after ‘clearing’ those seeking a Kenyan ID card, they end up being denied the same,” Noor laments.

From these complaints, it appears that someone somewhere does not trust Muslims who sit on vetting committees to clear another Muslim to acquire an ID. If this is the case, KMYA calls upon Minister Kajwang’ to gazette new and clear regulations to vet Muslims applying for these documents instead of allowing the current circus to continue.

If Muslims can be trusted to vet others to acquire IDs, why should they not be trusted to do the same for fellow Muslims?

Source- http://www.thenewdawn.info/

Kenya Nubians among 12 million stateless people-UN report

In Summary

-Up to 12 million people in the world are stateless

-Of several groups affected by statelessness, the Kenyan Nubians are the best known.

-Countries with the greatest numbers of stateless people, for which estimates are known, are Estonia, Iraq, Kenya, Latvia, Myanmar, Nepal, Syria and Thailand.

-While their families may have lived for generations in a particular country, on paper they don’t exist anywhere. They are people without a nationality.

-Because stateless people are not citizens of the country where they live (or of any other country), they are often denied basic rights and access to employment, housing, education, health care and pensions.

-They may not be able to own property, open a bank account, get married legally or register the birth of a child.

Some face long periods of detention, because they cannot prove who they are or where they are from

-While the full scope of statelessness across the globe is only just becoming known, UNHCR has found that the problem is particularly acute in South East Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and various countries in Africa, with pockets of stateless people throughout the world.

Photo-Kenyan Nubian Council of Elders chairman Issa Abdulfaraj before he met the chairman of the boundaries commission, Mr Andrew Ligale on August 31, 2010. He wanted Langa’ta constituency split into three for equitable distribution of resources. Photo/FILE

Kenya’s Nubians are among some 12 million people around the world who do not have citizenship of any country and are being denied basic human rights as a result, the UN has said.

With the worrying statistics the UN is now calling for more countries to sign up to two conventions on statelessness.

“Of several groups affected by statelessness, the Kenyan Nubians are the best known. They are descendants of Sudanese soldiers recruited by the British to fight for them in East Africa during the colonial period. They also fought in both world wars as part of the King’s African Rifles,” reads the latest UN report in part.

The report says after independence in 1963, the Nubians remained in Kenya where they had lived for generations, but lacked the rights of full citizenship.

The well-organized community has however led a strong campaign to redress their plight and for the first time, the 2009 Kenyan census included Nubians as a recognized ethnic group.

“The Nubians also have improved access to identification documents, which has a direct impact on their access to other essential rights, such as education and employment. Moreover, Kenya’s new constitution (2010) has brought positive reforms that will hopefully reduce statelessness in general, including granting gender equality in citizenship laws.”

The UN report says the issue is becoming worse as stateless children are born to stateless parents.

"These people are in desperate need of help because they live in a nightmarish legal limbo," argues Antonio Guterres of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“Putting precise figures on the numbers of stateless people is inherently difficult because few countries have procedures to identify the stateless,” explains Mark Manly, UNHCR’s chief expert on statelessness. UNHCR estimates are based on census counts, surveys and other sources, including government estimates.

Apart from the misery caused to the people themselves, adds Mr Guteres, the effect of marginalising whole groups of people across generations creates great stress in the societies they live in and is sometimes a source of conflict.

“Due to their lack of nationality, stateless people can face a whole range of problems including issues owning property, opening a bank account, getting married legally or registering the birth of a child,” adds the report.

UNHCR officials say measuring statelessness is difficult at best, because those affected have no legal identity and remain hidden.

“It is not simply a matter of counting. The first question to ask is: “Who should be counted?” A thorough analysis of a country’s citizenship laws and how they are applied is necessary, as well as a parallel examination of the laws and practice of other relevant countries… By any measure, statelessness is a multifaceted problem that affects people across the world,” the report concludes.

UNHCR recognizes it has insufficient data on stateless populations and is taking steps to address this problem by raising awareness of the international legal definition to determine who qualifies as a stateless person. The organization is working to improve the guidelines it uses to determine how statistics and qualitative information on relevant stateless populations can be gathered.

August 30, 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the UNHCR is stepping up efforts to resolve the ongoing plight of the stateless. In December this year (2011) UNHCR will hold a ministerial-level meeting in Geneva to present an opportunity for more states to join together to resolve the problem of statelessness.

Only 66 states are signed up to the 1954 Convention entitling stateless people to minimum standards of treatment while a mere 38 are party to the 1961 Convention which provides a legal framework to help states reduce statelessness.

"After 50 years, these conventions have attracted only a small number of states…it's shameful that millions of people are living without nationality - a fundamental human right '' Mr Guterres added.

Source- http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/-/539546/1224860/-/item/1/-/k7tdk1z/-/index.html