President Ruto’s Jamhuri Gift to Nubians Deserves Global Recognition
Despite having lived in Kenya for over 150 years, the Government of Kenya had refused to grant Nubians land and recognition as Kenyan nationals.
By Jumbwike Sam
Dr. Mimi Uwineza Harriet’s email landed to my inbox on a serene June 1st afternoon of 2012, with a modest invitation to attend a photo exhibition by Nubians from Kenya at Kace Sudan offices in Kampala. The invite was crafted in a tone that felt so personal and persuasive to the extent of tempting me to believe that the exhibition was simply beyond a collection of photos but an opening into something deeper.
I was ushered into Kace offices by elegantly dressed happy, tall Nubian belles in their gemis and gurubabas with jewelry in a fashion that clearly portrayed their deeply rooted culture and resilience. The Nubians from Kenya had eventually met the Nubians from Uganda and Sudan to celebrate the Nubian heritage and the excitement was there for all to see. But beneath the smiles, elegancy and excitement was a deep sense of hollowness, especially among the Nubians from Kenya with the subsequent speeches that followed.
Despite having lived in Kenya for over 150 years, the Government of Kenya had refused to grant Nubians land and recognition as Kenyan nationals. The Nubians had found their way into East Africa as hired mercenaries in the 1890s by the Imperial British East African Company from Sudan but later got integrated into the colonial army to form Uganda Rifles and East African Riffles to neutralize the British colonial territories in East Africa. The Nubians played key roles in the independence struggles of all East African countries but their contributions were not adequately recognized after independence.
After Kenya attaining independence in 1962, Nubians could neither be repatriated back to Sudan nor be allowed into the camps, they were simply settled in the Kibera Forests. With statelessness came the deprivation of access to basic rights like participation in politics, acquisition of travel documents, national identification cards, freedom of movement, work and healthcare. As the population in Kenya exploded, Nubians had to contend with surviving in slums of Kibera, Mazeras and Kibigori in their statelessness.
The declaration by the 5th President of Kenya, HE William Ruto, in April 2025, that the Nubians of Kenya would be officially gazetted as a tribe in Kenya by December 2025, deserves global recognition as a triumph of the long decades of advocacy and breakthrough in addressing the plight of statelessness of the Kenyan Nubians. The end of the Nubians’ statelessness in Kenya is a fulfillment of Article 15 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, an affirmation of Article 3(2)a of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights relating to the Specific Aspects to the Right to a Nationality and the eradication of Statelessness in Africa, and a consolidation of the East African Community’s adherence to universally acceptable principles of human rights and social justice. Congratulations to organizations like Al Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development, Open Society Initiative of East Africa and KACE Sudan with whom we crossed paths during the advocacy efforts to redeem the stateless Nubians.
