Citizens Minus: Rights, recognition and the Nubians of Kenya

Citizens Minus: Rights, recognition andthe Nubians of KenyaPhD ThesisSamantha Balaton-ChrimesMonash UniversitySummaryThis thesis examines the unequal nature of the citizenship of Kenya’s Nubians. The Nubians of Kenyatrace their origins to the Egyptian slave armies of the nineteenth century. Brought by the British toKenya as soldiers they were categorised as detribalized natives during the colonial era, neither settlernor fully native. This anomalous status has carried over into the postcolonial political community, andthe Nubians can today be considered ethnic strangers. Far from being liminal in an inconsequentialsense, the various ways in which the Nubians have occupied anomalous social, political and legalcategories since they arrived in Kenya have been symptomatic of the hierarchical and exclusionarytendencies of the colonial and post-colonial citizenship regimes.This thesis argues that the Nubians are not full citizens, but citizens minus. They experience anunequal and insufficient quality of citizenship. The deficit in the Nubians’ citizenship can bemeasured by the extent to which they lack participatory parity. Although (most) Nubians now haveformal membership in the form of citizenship status (a national identity card), they are lacking insocial and political standing, that is, lacking in effective membership. Treated as inferior and limitedto the margins of the political community, it is more difficult for Nubians to exercise their rights, andboth their formal membership and those rights are insecure.In understanding these deficits, this thesis explores three mechanisms which sustain the Nubians’marginalisation as ethnic strangers and citizens minus: discrimination in relation to access to nationalidentity cards, the withholding of collective recognition as a tribe of Kenya, and the withholding ofrecognition of Nubian land in the form of communal land title. In evaluating these mechanisms thethesis draws on political theories of recognition and connects the Nubians’ exclusion from fullcitizenship to the widespread privileging of indigeneity and autochthony as conditions of fullcitizenship in Kenya.In making this argument, the thesis addresses a number of critical questions about the nature ofcitizenship in Kenya, arguing that national citizenship in Kenya is largely subordinate to and definedby ethnicity. Throughout the thesis, and particularly in the final chapters, the thesis seeks tounderstand the Nubians’ response to their marginalisation, and the reasons why, and ways in which,they affirm a role for ethnicity in public affairs. In the final chapter the thesis engages in a critique ofthis role, and an exploration of a moderately transformative approach to ethnicity in the form ofmoral-inter ethnicity. Such an approach may allow Kenyans to affirm the importance of ethnicity indaily life and in the polity, without affirming ethnic parochialism and inter-ethnic competition, andthereby undermining equal citizenship.SwahiliTasinifu hii ni utafiti kuhusu uraia wa jamii ya Wanubi nchini Kenya. Utafiti unachunguza kwamakini vile Wanubi hawana haki sawa na Wakenya wengine. Wanubi wa Kenya, mwanzoni walitokakwenya makabila mengi ya kisudani na walikuwa wanajeshi watumwa miaka ya karne ya kumi natisa. Waingereza waliwaleta wanajeshi watumwa huku Kenya na wakawaita ‘Wenyeji wasio naKabila’ – watu ambao wanaishi kimjini na hawakuwa na uhusiano na makabila yao. Hali hii isiyo ya

kawaida kwenye jamii imedumu na sasa Wanubi nchini Kenya ni ‘Kabila geni’. Shidazinazowakumba wanubi ni kwa sababu ni ‘Kabila geni’ zinaeleza sana siasa na ujamii nchini Kenya.Tasinifu hii inajadili kwamba Wanubi hawana uraia sawa na Wakenya wengine. Badala yake, ni ‘raiabila’,kumaanisha wao ni raia lakini uraia wao hauna thamani au maana kama vile ulivyo kwaWakenya wengine. Kuna tofauti nne kati ya uraia wa Wanubi na uraia wa Wakenya wengine:Haki za Wanubi ziko tahadharini kuliko za Wakenya wengineWanubi hawana haki sawa na Wakenya wengine (kwa mfano haki za kumiliki Ardhi)Wanubu hawatambuliwi kikamilifu kama jamii la WakenyaWanubi hawawezi kushiriki katika siasa rasmi au siasa duni kwa njia sawa na Wakenya wengine. Hiini kwa sababu hawana uhakika na wakati mwengine hawapewi heshima kama Wakenya.Ili kuzielewa shida hizi, Tasinifu hii inapeleleza shida tatu zinazowaadhiri Wanubi:Kubaguliwa katika kupata VitambulishoKutotambuliwa kwa Wanubi kama kabila la KenyaKutokuwa na Ardhi.Tasinifu hii inatumia mafikira ya kimasomo ya ufumbuvu ili kueleza mambo matatu yanayozushashida kwa Wanubi. Mafikia haya yanajadili kwamba siasa za Kenya humilikiwa na makabila yawazawa. Isitoshe, fikira la ‘Uenyeji’ – kwamba watu Fulani wamemiliki nchi toka zana za kale, linaongoza sana kwenye siasa.. Mwishoni, Tasinifu hii inajadili kuhusu uhusiano kati ya ‘Kabila’ na‘Uraia’. Inajadili kwamba nchini Kenya, Kitambulisho sio muhimu kuliko kabila. Ni kwa kuwamwanakabila la ‘wenye siasa’ ndivyo watu wanaweza kufurahia ‘matunda ya uhuru’Tasinifu hii inaeleza vile Wanubu wanakabiliana na kuadhirika kwao kwa kuuliza maswali kuhusukutambuliwa kama kabila la Kenya na haki zao za Ardhi katika eneo la Kibera. Njia hii ya kujaribukupata usawa na Wakenya wengine inazingatia uhusiano kati ya Uraia na Kabila. Hii ni kwa sababu,nchini Kenya, Uraia na Kabila zinalinganishwa, na si rahisi kufikiria njia zingine za kupata usawa.Lakini, Tasinifu hii inajadili kwamba uhusiano kati ya Kabila na Uraia nchini Kenya unawezakuanzisha shida nyingi, kama vile ukabila. Hususan, Watu wengi wanasema ukabila inafaausiunganishwe na Uraia. Mimi ninajadili kwamba ukabila na Uraia zilinganishwe. Kwa mfano, Kwasabau ni muhimi, Wanubi wawe yote mawili, Wanubi na Wakenya, lakini ukabila na uraiazinalenganishwa tu katika demokrasia kama watu wa makabila tofauti wanaheshimiana nahawashiriki katika ubaguzi wa kikabila.KinubiBahth de garaya ta jinsiya asli ta mujtama’a ta Nubi fi Kenya, u hadaf to aina tofauti ma qabila wadinta Kenya. Nubi ta Kenya awal abidu min gabaail ketir ta Sudan al kan min askeria mamluk fi qarni tatisa tashar. Englisia ta British ya jib askeria mamluk dolin de fi Kenya. Englisia jib askeria dolin de fiKenya, u mon nadi umon nas al ma endis qabila, yaani, anas al gi ishi maisha ta madina u mon gataumon min qabila to umon ta asli.Bahth gi nakish au jadil za gal Nubi ma endis haki ta jinsiya za anas ta Kenya wadin. Walakin, monraia nuksan, maana to umon muwatinin, lakin jinsiya to umon ma endis thaman ma maana za fi naanas wadin ta Kenya. Fi fajwa muhim arba bain ta jinsiya ta Nubi, ma jinsiya ta anas wadin:Haki ta Nubi fi khatar zaid.Nubi ma endis haki sawa za anas wadin fi Kenya, (mathal haki ta ardhi)Nubi ma gi itirafu za anas ta mujtama’a ta Kenya.

Nubi ma agder sharik fi siasa rasmi u ab ma rasmi sawa ma jinsiya wadin ta kenya ashan saa taan monmeendis haiba, u saa tan ma gi hishma umon za nas ta kenya.Ashan kede ta fahim taab dolin de, bahth de gi fetish taab talata al gi qabil Nubi:Gishiri fi ligo Butaka shaksiya (ID cards)Ma gi itirafu Nubi za qabila ta KenyaFaqada ardhiBahth de gi istamil taaluma ta garaya ta taaraf, weri namna al ajana talata de gi taban Nubi. Bahth ginakish au jadil za fi Kenya, fikra ta ‘qabila asliya’ ya Wakenya chapi baraa ya gi saitar fi siasa. Ma debaraa, lakin fikra ta ‘autochthony’ yaani nas flan ya amsuku badu ma ardhi min zaman – Kaman gisaitar fi siasa. De maana to qabila barau al fi ma belee ya gi aina umon za asiliya ta Kenya. Akhir,bahth de gi wonus fi alaka bain ta ‘Qabila’ ma ‘Ujinsia.’ Gi jadil za gal fi Kenya itiraf ta Jumuia mamuhim za gal itiraf ta qabila. Kun fi qabila ‘al sahih fi siasa’ ya azol bi farih zaid fi akul ’fawaakiha taIstiklal.’Bahth gi jarib wadih namna al Nubi jawab fi asuru to umon. fi asadu itiraf za qabila ta Kenya, maasadu haki ta ardhi ta Kibra. Sika de, ta jarib kun sawa fi jumuia ta Kenya gi kutu wasila bain tajinsiya ma qabila. De shor fi Kenya, jinsiya ma qabila mara zaid gi amsuku badu, u ma rakhis fekersika wadin ta ligo usawa.Walakin, bahth de gi jadil au nakish za gal alaka bain ta uqabila ma jinsiya fi Kenya agder jib taabMilan za uqabila. Anas wadin gi kelem za uqabila kede ma kun ma suhba ma jinsiya. Ana gi jadil zagal uqabila ma ujinsiya agder yunga, mathal ashan muhim na Nubi kede kun Nubi u Wakenya, lakinjinsiya ma qabila agder yunga fi democracy kan anas min qabila muktalif agder hishma badu, u kedemon ma dakal umon fi uqabila.