The Windhoek High Court has revoked the national documents of a man who was born 22 years ago at the Otjiwarango State Hospital.

High Court Judge Boas Usiku has dismissed with costs an application in which a 22-year-old man born in Namibia to Burundian refugee parents wanted the court to order the Minister of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security to grant him a Namibian passport.

Russell Kwizera’s parents entered Namibia in 2000 and applied for refugee status; at the time of their son’s birth in 2002, they had not yet acquired refugee status.

Justice Boas Usiku states in his finding that because the application of the parents' refugee status was still being processed, Kwizera’s parents were not ‘ordinarily residents" of Namibia at the time of their son’s birth; therefore, the applicant cannot be considered a Namibian citizen.

Russell Kwizera who was born at the Otjiwarongo State Hospital, was issued with a full birth certificate, and later on issued with a Namibian identification document.

Usiku has now revoked Kizwera’s birth certificate and Namibian ID.

Kwizera had informed the Court that Namibia is the only country he has known and that he has no cultural or linguistic ties with his parents' country of origin, Burundi.