Govt to destroy 10,000 ID cards owned by foreigners

At least 10,000 national identity cards are to be destroyed by the Internal Affairs ministry upon confiscation from foreign nationals.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Mr Simon Mundeyi, explained that after the said foreign nationals disguised as Ugandans, their national identity cards have since been returned to the National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira) for cancellation.

“We have over 10,000 national IDs issued to some of these people who don’t qualify to get them. We confiscated them and we have been sending these to Nira to see to it that those national IDs are cancelled,” Mr Mundeyi said during the weekly security media briefing in Kampala yesterday.

Adding: “We have realised that at the time the country started issuing national IDs, there was no national data bank and therefore whoever came with any sort of information was issued with a national ID. We have, however, got many of these people and have continuously handed them over to Nira with other national IDs cancelled and others are in the process of cancellation.”

According to the ministry, these non-citizens owned genuine Ugandan national IDs and we are seeking to use them to acquire the country’s passports.

Some of these foreigners according to Mr Mundeyi came from China, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi, India, Kenya, and Nigeria, among others.

“We have seen a big number of foreigners trying to acquire Ugandan passports. Some of these want to come here to use fraudulent means to acquire our passports which is much sought after the world over now since they went digital,” Mr Mundeyi said.

He also revealed that last week, three foreign nationals, including two Nigerians and a Congolese, were found trying to acquire Ugandan passports using the country’s national IDs.

“One Nigerian, Kidebyere Okafor, was using a national ID in  the name of Ashraf Kakaire and he pretended to be a Musoga, but when we subjected him to an interview in Lusoga, he didn’t know anything. We took him to court and he confessed and pleaded guilty,” Mr  Mundeyi said.

“The national ID cards they [Ngerian and Congolese]had were genuinely issued but using fraudulently issued documents like LC letters. The number of foreign nationals with Ugandan national IDs has continued to increase and we are worried this could go up towards the 2026 elections,” he said.

In the past, several foreigners, especially those involved in drug trafficking, have been found with Ugandan passports that they use to commit crimes.

Ugandan passports are sought after by drug traffickers to conceal their real identities.

The ministry’s spokesperson also noted that Nigeria is being red-flagged over drug trafficking, many of these criminals run to Uganda where they are helped by their local agents by bribing Ugandan immigration officers to acquire passports.

This, he said is because countries like China and the US are very strict on Nigerians gaining entry.

“Now that Nigerians and Ugandans almost resemble each other, it is easy for the traffickers to use Ugandan passports to their work,” Mr Mundeyi said.

Public reactions

Mr Mose Kasujja, a boda boda rider in Kibuli, said: “In Uganda everything is possible.  Uganda ciziten can take years to get a National ID card ID but foreigners are getting it. Anyway, Uganda welcomes everybody and is a free country to foreigners but not citizens.”

“Uganda is a small country, they should just leave them to apply because they cannot control those who want to be Ugandans Adding: “Foreigners who can speak Luganda or any other local languages should be prioritised and given national ID cards because they are like any other Ugandan,”Mr Arnold Musubula, a resident of Kitintale, a Kampala suburb, said.

Social worker Reacheal Birungi said: “It’s not appropriate to give national IDs to foreigners. For example in Europe, Ugandans and other Africans are provided with visas as the only form of identification yet this cannot allow them to enjoy benefits such as health care and other financial benefits that come with it.”

Adding: “But I don’t support the destruction of those 10,000 cards because how will the government separate a foreigner from a citizen of Uganda by naturalisation? For example, some Indians have spent more than 15 years in Uganda. That makes them citizens of Uganda.  So before burning the IDs, officials must ensure they do not victimise naturalised Ugandans.”