• They lived without problems until the 80s, as the reign of President Daniel Moi took shape.
• In the early 1980s, he said, they were issued with alien identity cards but a fee was introduced for the renewal of the IDs every two years.
Image: MERCY MUMO
In 1964, Dickson Ncube arrived in Kenya with his parents, two siblings and other Shona missionaries to spread Christianity.
The 90-year-old remembers nothing from the journey except his father preaching in the bus they were travelling in.
At one point when they stopped, his mother helped a woman deliver a baby.
“We settled in Ngong’ where we were hosted by a local named Joshua Kiarie. When he converted to Islam, we were forced to move to Kiambaa,” he said.
They lived without problems until the 80s, as the reign of President Daniel Moi took shape.
In the early 1980s, he said, they were issued with alien identity cards but a fee was introduced for the renewal of the IDs every two years.
“They were charging Sh5,000 for the ID renewal and most of us could not afford it. However, after 1984, the issuance stopped and we were asked to return to our home,” he said.
After the Constitution of Kenya 2010 was enacted, Ncube said they again tried to apply for the national identity cards but were unsuccessful.
“We got tired but the police did not. Many times, they would conduct raids and arrest us for being in the country illegally,” he said.
Ncube, the father to 20 children, said they continued to live in Kenya, but were in constant fear of arrests and harassment and with no investments or a plan for development.
The government has now granted them citizenship, nearly 60 years later.
Interior CS Fred Matiang’i on Wednesday issued 1,649 people from the Shona community with national ID cards, making them the 45th community in Kenya.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta gave December 12, 2021 as the deadline to end statelessness in Kenya. The only community remaining are the Sagaf of Tana River which will be the next group to be recognised as Kenyans,” Matiang’i said.
The CS said the Shona of Kenya living as stateless persons in the country have been unable to access basic rights and services like education, treatment and employment.
Catherine Motsi, 39, and a mother of three, said she gave birth to all her children at home with the help of a midwife from her community.
“I gave birth to my firstborn when I was 17. I could not go to the hospital because, for admission, I needed an identity card,” she said.
To enrol her children in school, Motsi said she had to ‘borrow’ an ID card from a Kenyan.
“My son is 22 and in Form 4. He delayed because I could not get a person who was willing to share their ID,” she said.
The Shona people found in Kenya are descendants of missionaries who came from Matebele in Zimbabwe and settled here in the early to mid-1960s.
A report by Kenya Human Rights Commission documented the origin of the Shona.
It noted that the Shona came to Kenya as missionaries of a Christian denomination known as the Gospel Church of God. The church was founded in 1932 by Johane Masowe.
They are a Bantu community who were predominantly farmers, but in Kenya, most men practice masonry and carpentry while women do basketry.
One of the two surviving migrant missionaries said that when they left Zimbabwe on their evangelistic quest, the prophet and originator of their church had prophesied that they would eventually settle in Kenya.
He said the prophet told them Kenya is at the centre of the world.
"Further, as early as 1938, the prophet foretold the erection of a stone in Kenya, which would guide their distance to different parts of the world where they would go on evangelical missions," he said.
The community believes that the prophecy came to pass with the erection of the Galton Fenzi Memorial in Nairobi in 1939.
The Shona say the memorial is the point from which the distance from and to Nairobi and other parts of the country was measured. It is also known as Point Zero.
Upon arrival, the community split into two groups, with one settling in Ngong and the other settling in Juja, before moving to Maguga in Kaimbaa.
By 1975 their population had spilled over to Kinoo area. Presently, scores are settled in Lenana, Githurai, Kasarani, Nyahururu, Meru, Nakuru, Kericho, Kitengela and Malindi where the Gospel of God Church has branches.
The estimated population of the Shona community is 2,400 people spread in over 900 families.