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How foreigners get Ugandan passports, National ID cards
The failure to pay for services offered, agents say, is a betrayal to the agenda of creating employment. PHOTO BY ALEX ESAGALA
What you need to know:
- According to the Uganda Citizenship and Immigration Control Act, Section 60, a deportation can only be done by the Internal Affairs minister.
- Mr Kabwigo yesterday described the allegations against him as “rubbish and diversionary”.
KAMPALA. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is investigating how a racket of police officers, quack lawyers and immigration officials are conniving to sell Ugandan passports and nationals Identity cards to foreigners, security sources that this newspaper has talked to, have said.
According to the sources, the racket helps foreigners who come to Uganda with lots of money and want to do business without paying for work permits.
The commissioner of Immigration Control, Mr Anthony Namara, yesterday confirmed there were investigations.
“These reports still remain rumours until investigations are concluded,” he said.
The same group, according to security sources, also targets and defrauds unsuspecting refugees with the promise that they will get them National IDs and passports.
Those targeted include Burundians, Congolese, Somalis, Eritreans and Rwandans. Our sources reveal that a passport is sold between Shs4 million and Shs6 million to the foreigners.
The process
The process starts with foreigners forging academic documents and birth certificates, which are used by quack lawyers and certain immigration officials to get the passports or National IDs for refugees.
This newspaper has also established that sometimes forgeries start with village Local Council chairpersons, who give recommendations to refugees as citizens to enable them get passports or National IDs. The process usually takes, at most, two days to avoid delay and exposure to authorities.
In other cases, some members of the racket under investigation are said to wait for refugees in areas such as Hoima District, where copies of the passport or the national IDs are delivered to whoever can afford. The recipients do not have to necessarily travel to the immigration offices.
One case that is under investigation is that of a Burundian army officer Pascal Nkunzimana who fled Burundi over political persecution.
Mr Nkunzimana was first approached by a friend, Renatus Mulindangabo, to be a business shareholder in Pyramid Concepts bar in Kansanga, a Kampala suburb, but was told he had to first get a passport before doing business in Uganda.
According to Mr Nkunzimana’s lawyer, Mr Stanley Omony of Stanley Omony and Company Advocates, his client was later introduced to ASP Kenneth Kabwigo, a police officer attached to Immigration by a city lawyer, who helped him get a passport and national ID.
“Subsequently, our client was given passport application documents by the said ASP Kabwigo, who instructed him to sign and leave the rest of the information to be filled since our client was not conversant with the entire process. Our client solely relied on ASP Kabwigo as a police officer attached to Immigration Control office and indeed, a few days later, our client was called to pick his ‘Ugandan’ passport,” Mr Omony writes.
The copy of the passport number is B1400601. It states that Mr Nkunzimana is a “Ugandan” citizen born on March 16, 1970 in Kisoro District. The date of issuance was October 10, 2016. He also got a National ID number CM7001810A922A with the same birth details as passport.
Jacob Siminyu, Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson
After getting the passport and a National ID, Mr Nkunzimana entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Mulindangabo, with each owning 50 per cent stake in Pyramid Concept bar, before the duo got a disagreement and Mr Nkunzimana decided to dissolve his shares.
But Mr Omony, in a letter written to Mr Namara, dated February 6, says they were surprised when Mr Nkunzimana was arrested by Mr Kabwigo, who had helped him get the passport.
“However, to our client’s surprise, on February 02, 2017, he received a call from Francis Asiimwe [Mulindangabo’s lawyer] to go to Pyramid Concepts bar, from where he found ASP Kabwigo, who immediately arrested him and took him to Kabalagala Police Station, where he was given police bond on February 3. But he was re-arrested and taken to Immigration Department, from where he was taken to Jinja Road Police Station and detained on charges of giving false information,” reads the letter, in part.
Denied allegations
Mr Kabwigo yesterday described the allegations against him as “rubbish and diversionary”.
“How can I help someone get a passport and then arrest him? I would be implicating myself. Some people are trying to be diversionary,” he said.
Mr Kabwigo said the Inspector General of Police, Commissioner of Immigration Namara and the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, were closely following the case.
After his arrest, documents to deport Mr Nkuzimana, who had fled Burundi for his life, were hurriedly processed. He had been bundled into a car and was about to be driven through Rwanda and be taken to Burundi.
But Mr Namara intervened and halted the planned deportation.
“His lawyers came to me and I felt the deportation was being done unfairly. I felt it would only be fair if we allowed the law to take its course,” he said.
Mr Nkunzimana is now at Nakawa Chief Magistrates Court facing charges of false declaration and illegal stay in Uganda.
According to the Uganda Citizenship and Immigration Control Act, Section 60, a deportation can only be done by the Internal Affairs minister.
Mr Namara said investigations are ongoing to find out how Mr Nkunzimana got the passport and why there was a plan to hurriedly deport him.
Sources say there are many Senegalese, Nigerians and Congolese who are carrying Ugandan passports obtained fraudulently. Mr Namara said some Congolese, Burundian and Rwandans masquerade as Bufumbira to get passports.
The Ugandan passport has for long been subjected to abuse. In 2013, the Passport Control said some 200 diplomatic passports had gone missing from their strong room.
Response by Jacob Siminyu, Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson
As far as the Ministry of Internal Affairs is concerned, there is no racket in passport issuance because only two cases have been investigated and prosecuted in the last two years. One was successfully prosecuted and deported and the other (Pascal Nkuzimana) is still in court.
The biggest problem we have is that of not being able to identify Ugandans and, therefore, we depend on officers interviewing the applicants to establish whether the person is actually a Ugandan or not.
A child born in Busia Kenya and that one born in Busia Uganda may play together, study together and have a similar accent and, therefore, if such a person presents the details as a Ugandan, he may be accepted as a Ugandan even if he is not.
For the case currently under investigation, one [Pascal] Nkuzimana presented himself as a Ugandan Mufumbira from Kisoro [District]. He was interviewed and he passed the interview. He also uttered a National ID Registration slip, which was later found to be forged. Until we get the full National Database, these scenarios will continue to be expected.
Within a few months, the National Identitification and Registration Authority (NIRA) will be able to share the current database, but it should be noted that it is still not full as the children aged between 0 and 16 are yet to be registered. The passports office should actually be hailed instead of being disparaged for a great job in the circumstances.
