[PHOTOS] Shona community receive citizenship certificates, IDs

Members of the Shona community have finally been recognised as Kenyan citizens after years of pushing for recognition.

The community members have been issued with the Kenyan Identity Cards (IDs), an event that was presided by the Interior CS Fred Matiang’i.

The CS said that he was happy for the progress that the government has made in the recognition of citizenship to the Shona.

The event took place on Wednesday at Windsor Hotel in Kiambu County.

The Shona arrived in Kenya in 1959.

This follows the move by Kenya to recognize the community as part of Kenyans.

According to the UNHCR estimates that there are approximately 12 million stateless people in the world, with over 715,000 living in Africa.

The government had earlier issued about 15,000 people from the Makonde Community with birth certificates and their identity was regularised following a 2016 Presidential directive.

This is the part of the government efforts to address statelessness in the country.