KAMPALA– The Minister of State for Internal Affairs, David Muhoozi has revealed that Government has extended the validity of some of the IDs that were set to expire soon for one year ahead of the mass enrollment of renew and registration of National IDs expected to start this year.
Myhoozi made the revelation while appearing before Parliament’s Defence and Internal Affairs Committee where he had appeared to provide an update on the mass enrollment or the renewal and registration of the new National IDs to be done by the National Identification and Registration Authority.
“A statutory instrument was published in the gazette on 12th August 2024 so this should sort the anxiety that was starting in the public regarding on what do we do, between now and when we get the new IDs. So the IDs that were due to expire within that period will be extended by one year,” said Muhoozi.
The Minister informed the Committee that unregistered citizens are recorded as 17.2million, while the cards expiring by January 2025 are 3.7million and the cards expiring beginning August 2024 to 31st December 2025 are 15.8million.
According to NIRA, the Authority is required to delivery of data to Electoral Commission by 30th November 2024, that will be used as the national voters’ register and the original start date was June 2024, and although the funds for the exercise were secured, the delays were occasioned by the due diligence that has to be conducted on the company that was meant to deliver the national security system which forms the core function of the new IDs exercise.
“The exercise which had been scheduled to commence on 1st June 2024 experienced delays and challenges in respect to procurement and implementation of the new security national information system, which system is the backbone of the exercise to be implemented. You did your duty of providing the finances, and now the ball was pushed in our court. The procurement process for the vendor to deliver and implement the system was concluded and the contract was signed on 8th July 2024 and this was after some protraction because we wanted to take all due diligence steps to ensure this is the right person to deliver the right project. The contract signing marked a key milestone for the moblisation phase,” explained Muhoozi.
Wilson Kajwengye (Nyabushozi County) asked NIRA to explain how it will ensure that the exercise isn’t delayed by the numerous closure of business whenever there are ceremonies taking place at Kololo Independence Grounds, which also hold the headquarters for the Authority.
“You reported to us that NIRA loses 30working days by occupying Kololo. When you have these tight deadlines, when you don’t even miss a single hour for you to deliver, we would like you to allay fears of the nation that continued occupancy of Kololo ceremonial Grounds and subsequent ceremonies as they come, will not affect delivery of timeline,” said Kajwengye.
Peter Okeyoh (Bukooli Island) asked what the Minister to explain under what law he used to extend the validity of the pending expired IDs and how NIRA was prepared to deal with suits that would arise from this extension in courts of law.
He said, “My issue is on extension of the validity of IDs cards by one year. The Minister said that he did this under Statutory Instrument and then put in the gazette, actually even us MPs are hearing about it for the first time, how about my mother down there in the Islands of Migingo, are they aware in that this information was put in the gazette? I wanted to do the legal regime this was done and isn’t this subject to litigation? I find a lot of legal challenges and I don’t know how NIRA is going to address this.”
Joel Ssebikaali (Ntwetwe County) wondered if Ugandans with expired IDs will be in position to enter East African Nations that provided this privilege to Ugandans remarking, “If you say you are continuing with the IDs that are expired in Uganda, you are using the law of Uganda internally, how about outside Uganda because we are obliged to observe international treaties, and once my ID is expired, can I go to Rwanda, can I go to Kenya using the ID that is expired?”
Christine Tubo (Kabong DWR) sought clarification on how the use of expired IDs will work noting, “How is this extension going to be done? Are you going to first withdraw the IDs and then give the new ones to the public? Does this extension have any implication and if it does, had you planned for it or not?”
Christine Kaaya (Kiboga DWR) decried the poor planning and execution of public projects within Government, saying this has led public agencies to normalizing the practice of extending deadlines for activities they fail to implement on time.
“We are concerned about extension of expired issues in Uganda. LCI, LCII, Women Councils are expired but we are moving on, now IDs. There are even some leaders who are expired, although they continue to be in service,” said Kaya.
She also wondered the essence of renewing national IDs yet the IDs once issued to an individual, they can’t be used by any other person noting, “Why do we go for the renewal of these IDs? It is expensive on our side as a nation but also we know, the people will have to part with some money. Even when I die, nobody will be able to use my ID because the fingerprints are gazette strictly for me, so why should we renew? That is a public outcry.”
