94 under the Kenyan Constitution and consequently qualified for registration as Kenyan citizens, they had been denied their right to nationality. They had also been denied Kenyan passports and National Identity Cards, and thus the benefits that accrued from the possession of these documents. The lack of those documents and other citizenship rights had, for example, led to the denial of the right to vote and exclusion of the Nubian community from both the political process and social development. The complainants alleged that the deliberate, systematic and sustained denial of identity papers to the Nubian community and their non-recognition as Kenyan citizens had also denied them basic services and led them to extreme poverty. The complainants claimed that as de facto stateless people they were without legal protection. They remained uneducated and were denied access to other civil, political, economic and cultural rights provided for under the Kenyan Constitution and other regional and international human rights instruments that Kenya was a signatory to. They remained landless and were exposed to arbitrary and uncompensated displacements from their dwelling places throughout Kenya, and continued to be threatened with further displacements. The complainant put forward the argument because local remedies to their predicament were unavailable, ineffective and had been unduly prolonged. They claimed that the Kenyan state violated their rights to equality, prohibition from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, their freedom of movement, their right to property, to work, to education, to protection of the family and vulnerable groups, to economic, social and cultural development and their right to a general satisfactory environment under the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights. The respondent’s submission The respondent state submitted that the communication should not be admitted because the applicants had not exhausted local remedies in the Kenyan judicial and administrative systems. The respondent State denied the allegation that the Nubians were discriminated against in the acquisition of citizenship rights on the basis of their affiliation to the Nubian Community. It stated that the Kenyan Constitution did not provide for acquisition of Kenyan citizenship to communities, tribes, clans or groups of people but only to individuals. Any claim to citizenship had to be examined on a case by case basis. It pointed out that that position was legally sound considering that a majority of Communities in Kenya, including the Nubian Community, had their counterparts in the neighbouring countries such as Uganda and Sudan and a blanket qualification would lead to the entry of large numbers of the community into the country. Issues for determination The main issues for determination were whether the Republic of Kenya’s treatment of the Nubian community was discriminatory and whether such treatment violated their rights to equality, prohibition from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, their freedom CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONALITY RIGHTS CASE DIGEST