44. The Court observes that although the Respondent State raises an objection
to admissibility based on the Applicants’ failure to file the Application within
a reasonable time, the arguments made in support of this objection relate
to the exhaustion of local remedies, as does the Applicants’ response. The
Court will therefore first consider this objection under the non-exhaustion of
local remedies, before examining other conditions of admissibility, if
necessary.
A. Objection based on the non-exhaustion of local remedies
45. Citing the jurisprudence of this Court in Urban Mkandawire v. Malawi and
Peter Joseph Chacha v. Tanzania and the decision of the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Article 19 v. Eritrea, the
Respondent State submits that the Application does not meet the
admissibility requirement provided under Rule 40(5) of the Rules of Court,
since the Applicants never attempted to exhaust all local remedies prior to
filing the present Application, contrary to Article 56(5) of the Charter.
46. In particular, the Respondent State avers that the Applicants did not raise
the allegations that their conviction was based on circumstantial evidence
before the Court of Appeal; and did not expound on the circumstantial
evidence they alluded to before this Court. The Respondent State contends
that the Applicants are raising for the first time the defence of alibi, whilst
they had the opportunity to raise it during the proceedings before the High
Court and the Court of Appeal. It further contends that the Applicants had
the possibility of requesting for a review under Rule 66 of the Court of
Appeals Rules on the grounds that the decision was based on a manifest
error which resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
47. Finally, the Respondent State argues that the Applicants should have first
filed a constitutional petition for violation of their rights under the Basic
Rights and Duties Enforcement Act, Cap 3 of the Laws. It is the Respondent
State’s contention that Section 4 of the Basic Right and Duties Enforcement
Act Cap 3 of the Laws outlines the procedure for enforcing constitutional
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