Somalis deserve citizenship status like other Kenyans

President William Ruto issues a passport to a resident after opening an Immigarions office in Garissa on February 06, 2025. [PSC, Standard]

The presidential directive to end special vetting of Kenyans who happen to be ethnic Somalis when applying for national identification documents is more than welcome.

For decades, the Kenyan state has essentially treated Kenyans who live along our borders as second-class citizens.

Not only have these Kenyans not been able to access essential public goods and services, but they have also had to jump over added hoops to be officially recognised as Kenyan.

And while this problem has impacted all border communities, Somalis have particularly faced special discrimination.

Not even being at the core of the Kenyan state in Nairobi has lessened the burden. It should be clear to all by now that Somalis are as Kenyan as it gets.

As a community, they are among those who have remained loyal to our flag and Constitution, even as the government and sections of ordinary citizens have treated them otherwise.

Therefore, the least we could do as a country is to close this shameful chapter of our history by normalising the administrative process of registration for Somalis and other border communities.

Of course, how this change was done officially will generate a lot of political banter.

Some will choose to view this development purely through an electoral lens, arguing that President William Ruto is only interested in vote harvesting. Others will concoct conspiracy theories about an intention to register non-nationals as Kenyan.

The conspiracy theorists should be condemned in the strongest terms and deserve no airtime.

The charge that the recognition of Somalis as full citizens is just politics, deserves an answer. 

So what if the President stands to benefit from Somalis not having their full status as Kenyans questioned?

Their exclusion was always political. And so was the inclusion of those who view themselves as more Kenyan.

I would argue that it should always be politically beneficial for politicians to consider Somalis as full citizens.

Just like it is always electorally beneficial to promote the smooth registration of individuals from other ethnicities or parts of the country. 

Eventually, one hopes that the spreading of full citizenship status to all Kenyans will result in a complementary openness to permanent internal migration.

In a world where everyone is Kenyan, no one should be required to have an ethnic “reserve” homeland.

Kenyans should live and work wherever they want – whether in urban or rural areas – and enjoy their status as full citizens while at it.

-The writer is a professor at Georgetown University