Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta recently granted a group of Shona people who migrated from Zimbabwe to Kenya between 1930 and 1950 citizenship, Kenyans.co.zw reports
The people who have been staying in Kenya as illegal immigrants reportedly settled in Nairobi first and started a church before they finally settled in Kinoo, Kiambu County
The Shona people together with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have been lobbying the government of Kenya to recognize them as citizens because they intermarried and have been in the country for decades before Kenyatta granted their request.
This was revealed by one Fred Matiang’i who during an event called the Jamuhuri Day Celebrations yesterday said:
Your excellency the President of Kenya, since 1930, various groups of citizens who were not originally from our country moved and migrated into Kenya. Some of those include the Shona from Zimbabwe and some communities from Rwanda
Further to your instructions your Excellency and pursuant to all positions of the relevant law, we are according citizenship to 1,670 members of the Shona community and 1,300 members of various Rwandese communities descendants of those who were living in our country since the 1930s and 1950s.
According to the publication, 20 of the Shona People were presented with their citizenship papers in front of Kenyatta.
