Anudo was a project manager with a German NGO working on access to clean water. On 22 March 2018, the African Court, the apex human rights court for the African continent, headquartered in Arusha, ruled against its host country in the case of Anudo Ochieng Anudo. Potentially of even more significance, African governments were simultaneously considering the draft text of a proposed protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights that would enshrine these principles as continental law. National courts in Kenya and South Africa also insisted on the rights of individuals to due process as governments deliberately abused, or simply failed to exercise, their powers.

Most notably, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in its first decision touching on nationality administration, found Tanzania in violation of norms against arbitrary deprivation of nationality.

March 2018 saw a series of bold rulings by African courts to protect both prominent politicians and ordinary people against excessive discretion in decisions relating to the right to a nationality. By Bronwen Manby (London School of Economics), GLOBALCIT Collaborator

Cit lost saga