C. Alleged violation of the Second Applicant’s right not to be discriminated
against
178. The Second Applicant claims that his right not to be discriminated against
on the basis of national origin, as provided under Article 2 of the Charter,
was violated when:
i.
He was not provided with interpretation services;
ii.
He was exposed to a hostile police environment by being interrogated in
Kiswahili, a language he did not understand, to extract a confession: and
iii. Police made inconvenient and inaccurate assumptions about him,
because of his refugee status.
179. The Court has already addressed the claims related to the right to be
provided with interpretation services and on police brutality. It will, therefore,
focus on the third claim, relating to the police making inaccurate
assumptions based on his refugee status.
180. The Second Applicant avers that the police made inaccurate presumptions
because of his status as a refugee, precipitated by the increasing
intolerance of refugees to the “Open door policy toward refugees from
Congo, Rwanda and Burundi”.
181. He further avers that the Respondent State’s failure to investigate or
prosecute Mama Mboya, a Tanzanian national and the wife of a police
officer, who allegedly orchestrated the murder, demonstrates the authority’s
preferential treatment towards her based on national origin. He argues that
under the prosecution’s theory, Mama Mboya was arguably the most
culpable of all actors and yet the prosecution never charged her or called
her to testify as a witness, which is in stark contrast to the manner in which
the two impoverished Burundian refugees, were prosecuted and tortured.
According to him, this preferential treatment violates the Respondent State’s
obligation to ensure equal treatment under the law.
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