Immigration calls Kakwenza’s children to pick passports
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mr Simon Mundeyi, places passports on a printer at the their headquarters in Kampala on on May 9, 2022. PHOTO/ISAAC KASAMANI
What you need to know:
- On Monday, the lawyers petitioned the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) accusing the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control of refusing to issue passports to Kakwenza’s children, despite fulfilling the requisite requirements.
The Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control has denied allegations by lawyers representing exiled novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija of refusing to issue passports to his three children.
On Monday, the lawyers petitioned the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) accusing the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control of refusing to issue passports to Kakwenza’s children, despite fulfilling the requisite requirements.
Mr Simon Mundeyi, the Internal Affairs publicist, in an interview with Saturday Monitor on Thursday said: “We do not deny Ugandans passports. The qualification for passports here is citizenship, not any other. If they apply for passports, Kakwenza’s children should wait like other Ugandans do.”
He added: “We have been clearing a backlog of 90,000 pending passport applications. We are now working on the last backlog which includes the children of Kakwenza and their passports will be issued on Monday. When Kakwenza’s children applied for passports, we were having a system upgrade.”
Background
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, 33, left the country earlier this year after a magistrate denied his application to have his passport returned in order to seek treatment abroad after he was of torture by security operatives while in custody.
Kakwenza is accused of using social media to insult President Museveni and his son, also the commander of the Land Forces of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
