violated are also protected under its Constitution. According to the
Respondent State, both Applicants had the option of instituting a
constitutional petition to address their grievances but failed to do so thereby
confirming their failure to exhaust domestic remedies.
*
42. In his Reply, the First Applicant argues that by taking his case to the High
Court, which dismissed his appeal on 17 May 2003, and the Court of
Appeal, which dismissed his appeal on 11 August 2014, before
approaching this Court, he fulfilled the requirement for exhaustion of
domestic remedies. He contends, therefore, that the Respondent State had
the opportunity to redress the alleged wrongs within the framework of its
domestic legal system and submits, as a consequence, that he exhausted
domestic remedies.
43. The Second Applicant’s submissions did not address the objection raised
by the Respondent State
***
44. The Court reiterates that the requirement of exhaustion of local remedies
must be complied with before any Application is admissible before it.
However, this condition may, exceptionally, be dispensed with if local
remedies are not available, they are ineffective, insufficient or the domestic
procedures to pursue them are unduly prolonged. Furthermore, this
requirement only demands that a litigant exhaust ordinary judicial
remedies.9
45. In the present consolidated Applications, the Court observes that the
Respondent State’s arguments relate particularly to both Applicants’ nonrecourse to the procedures under the Basic Rights and Duties Enforcement
9
Thomas v. Tanzania (merits), supra, § 64 and Kennedy Owino Onyachi and Another (merits) (28
September 2017) 2 AfCLR 65, § 56.
13