17 8. African Court finds that an applicant had been deprived of nationality arbitrarily. Anudo Ochieng Anudo v The United Republic of Tanzania Application No. 012/2015 African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights S Ore, P, B Kioko, VP, G Niyungeko, EH Guisse, RB Achour, NSO Mengue, MT Mukamulisa, TR Chizumila, C Bensaouia, JJ March 22, 2018 Administrative actions regarding one’s nationality should have the right of appeal. Summary of Facts The applicant stated that he was born in 1979 in Masinono, Butiama, United Republic of Tanzania. In 2012, the applicant approached Tanzanian authorities seeking to process formalities for his marriage. The police retained his passport on grounds that there were suspicions about his Tanzanian citizenship. In the months of April and May 2014, the Tanzanian immigration service inquired into the matter. Residents of Masinono village stated that he was the biological son of two Tanzanian nationals except that his uncle stated that he had been born in Kenya and then he immigrated to Tanzania. By a letter dated August 21, 2014, the Minister of Home Affairs and lmmigration informed the applicant that they had concluded that he was not a Tanzanian national and that his passport had been issued on the basis of fake documents and it was cancelled. Ultimately, on September 1, 2014, the applicant was expelled from Tanzania after being forced to sign a notice of deportation and a document confirming that he was a Kenyan national. In Kenya, the applicant faced charges at the Homa Bay Resident Magistrates Court which declared him to be of an irregular status and fined him for an illegal stay in Kenya. He was to be expelled to Tanzania as a result of that decision. The applicant alleged that he had been living in a “no man’s land” between the Tanzania-Kenya border in Sirari. He added that he was living under very difficult conditions without basic social and health services. Further, the applicant explained that his expulsion from Tanzania was because he had refused to pay immigration services a certain amount of money. He therefore alleged that his expulsion was due to corruption. The applicant prayed for among other things, the cancellation of the prohibited immigrant notice issued against him and for a declaration that he was a citizen of the United Republic of Tanzania. Key issues to be determined The court was to determine whether the applicant’s deprivation of nationality was unreasonable and whether a citizen could be prevented from returning to his country. CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONALITY RIGHTS CASE DIGEST