Uganda Picks

By Jumah Nsubuga

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced its plans to start up
regional centers for issuing passports to Ugandans in the whole regions of the country.

State minister for Internal Affairs James Baba revealed this while
appearing before the foreign affairs committee at parliament chaired by Isingiro district Mp Alex Byarugaba to respond to the concern rose by the Ugandans living in the United Arab Emirates in their petition to parliament and why non Ugandans holds Uganda passports abroad.

Baba said that the reason of having these centers all over the country is to help Ugandans to access passports easily and for easy verification of the information presented by the applicants.

“We have put in place a number of measures to ensure that we issue Ugandan passports to only the people who deserve to hold them for example the Ugandan citizens, the 2004 passport regulations have been a guiding factor where an applicant is required to appear in person at the time of submitting an application and at the time of receiving the passports” Minister stressed

The minister was also grilled by MPs to explain whether the ministry already registered some agencies to do the work of the ministry by issuing passports to Ugandans.

MPs revealed that many Ugandans get passports from some agencies without the knowledge of the ministry.” we want the minister to explain to the committee to why many people receive passports without his knowledge” said the MP

In responding to Mp the minister said that the ministry doesn’t know those agencies issuing passports to Ugandans however urged Ugandans not to continue using them because their intention is to steal money from Ugandans.

“We don’t know them and they are not registered with us they are always used by people who have criminal records who doesn’t want to go through the normal process at the ministry however appealed to Ugandans to be Law abiding citizens by not getting passports through those agencies”Baba urged

The minister’s pronouncement however was received with mixed reactions
from the mps with some in support and others opposing the move.
Okolo county mp Stanley Omwonya welcomed the move saying that with centre’s in the whole country Ugandans will be saved from transport.He also said that the people will be saved from the cone men who take people’s money on pretence that their passports will be accessed quickly.

However Masaka district woman mp Freda Kase-Mubanda opposed the move saying that with corruption in the country Uganda’s passports may endup in the wrong hands.

She said that instead of having those centers in the different regionsthe ministry of internal affairs should streamline its operations at the center and continue handling the exercise at the center.

Elsewhere Hon Baba told Mps that the process of compiling a national population register is underway which will help in the issuance of national IDS which will have biometric features.

“We are still studying current international trends in travel document issuance with the intention of migrating to the e-passport which will have the added advantage of facial recognition,fingerprints in additional to the readable capacity”Baba revealed