The Internal Affairs Minister General Aronda Nyakairima has said he was not aware that 1800 Sango Bay residents had missed out on the national Identity Card registration last year. He has asked Rakai district authorities to ensure they are registered.
The Ministry of Internal affairs and other stakeholders in the National Identity card project have begun issuance of ID cards at parish level with the first one having been issued at 1600hrs at Kololo 3 parish, Kitante hill at the museum.
The issuance exercise will be preceded by a launch ceremony on Tuesday 2nd December, 2014, which will be presided over by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Thereafter, the first batch of cards will be issued to those Ugandan citizens who successfully registered at enrollment centers in Kampala Capital City, the statement adds.
Computers being used in registering citizens for the national identity cards are still rejecting photos of people whose lips and ears were cut off by fighters of rebel Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda. The Electoral Commission officials say the computers failed to detect their ears and lips, and simply cited open mouths or missing ears for refusal to capture their photos.
On Monday, John Salt Kenyi, a south Sudan national from Mugalu town in Central Equatoria province in South Sudan was picked up by police on Monday at Bibia West while attempting to register.
Internal Affairs Minister Aronda Nayakairima has noted that the National ID registration exercise has been delayed by exhortation, delay in provision of kits, unreliable power supply, malfunctioned kits and others.
Namuganza, who is Luweero district ID Projector coordinator, explains that she got complaints from six mass enrollment officers in Katikamu Sub County accusing Naiga of deducting and pocketing between 20,000-40,000 shillings per the officer she pays.
Two individuals have written to the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga informing advising her to desist from debating issues concerning the National ID registration process saying that it violates the constitution.
Opposition party leaders and civil society activists have called for the immediate suspension of the National Identity Card project saying that the exercise is illegal and highly compromised.
Ivan Mutinyi, The enrollment officer at Masaba ward center said majority of the people who turned out for registration at the center are Somali. He said many of them presented photocopies of a similar birth certificate claiming they were Ugandans by Birth. They were however rejected and advised to present original copies of their birth certificates and at least a Ugandan passport to certify their citizenship.
The National Security Information System Project secretariat is supposed to deliver a computer kit for all registration centers. These include a laptop, finger print scanner to scan all the ten fingers, a camera, document scanner and signature pad. However, by close of business some registration centers did not have all the required equipment except the printed forms.
Jennifer Mauso, an enrolment officer at the center says the first day of the exercises was also interrupted by the delay in the distribution of the enrolment kits. She says the registration forms were delivered at the center as late as midday affecting the opening of the center which should have been opened by 8:00am.
. James Saaka, the Executive Director of National Information Technology Authority Uganda-NITA-U disclosed that 15 billion of the 285 billion shillings has been allocated for the sensitization program.
Ana Lucia Coronel, the IMF Uganda Mission Chief says that government needs to concentrate on the real needs of the country, like infrastructural development and the National ID project.
Former Finance Minister Syda Bbumba has been named as one of the persons involved in contracting a German company in investigations into the stalled National ID project saga. Bbumba\'s name came up after the Internal Affairs ministry Permanent Secretary Stephen Kagoda produced a letter she had signed.
The Internal Affairs Minister General Aronda Nyakairima has dismissed a charge by a Member of Parliament (MP) that the National ID project\'s hidden agenda is to enable the ruling government rig the 2016 general elections.
The appointment by Nyakairima is the last straw in the Directorate of Immigration and Citizenship control\'s attempts to shield UPDF from taking control of the national Identity card project.
