Measuring Statelessness: A Study of the Pemba - 2016

A household mapping exercise was conducted in Kilifi and Kwale to identify Pemba households and to make it easier to locate them on the ground. The mapping was done from 4 to 12 August 2016 by a team from UNHCR Kenya office and KNBS.

The mapping in each village commenced with a visit to the chief's office, who put the team in touch with the village chair. The team explained the purpose of its visit to the village chair and began the mapping exercise. The importance of involving the chiefs and village chairpersons is that they are well connected, recognised and trusted by residents in their communities. The same procedure is followed by KNBS when they are mapping for sample surveys and censuses.

The team established physical boundaries of the area to be mapped, located the boundaries on the map and then identified and listed the Pemba households within the enumeration boundary. A Pemba household, in this context, is one identified by the informants as having at least one person with origins or links to Pemba. The links may include a person's spouse, parents or grandparents, who migrated to Kenya from Pemba or where a person has migrated from Pemba to Kenya.

The mapping team was followed by the village chair to the Pemba households, where the UNHCR and Haki Centre staff listed number of persons in each, while the KNBS staff marked the location of the household on the map. The entrances of identified Pemba households were marked in chalk with the letters HCR and a number starting at 001 to make it easier to find the houses during the enumeration. Since it seems to be generally well known where the Pemba live it was not considered stigmatising to mark their doors. During the feedback forums with the Pemba after the survey, there was no mention of stigmatization due to marking the door with chalk.

The maps were from the 2009 national housing and population census, purchased from KNBS. The team made lists with information about the location, number and size of each household. The mapping team visited 17 villages in Kilifi and Kwale (see Table 1 in Section 2.7). All villages visited were identified before the mapping exercise by key informants as locations being home to the Pemba of Kenya. The key informants were Pemba elders in different sub-counties previously identified for providing background information on the Pemba arrival and history in Kenya. In each sub-country, the chief, the assistant chief or the village chair also accompanied the team. In Kwale, 358 households were identified with 2,220 persons, and in Kilifi, 86 households with 558 persons.