President Yoweri Museveni has issued an executive order instructing the Ministry of Internal Affairs to stop denying Ugandan passports to rightful citizens.
Museveni in the order signed on January 23 said that he had consistently received complaints regarding how people applying for passports are sometimes treated by the concerned authorities. “This mainly relates to how the question of whether or not an applicant is a citizen of Uganda is approached when he or she has applied for a passport,”.
The president said that the issue is not the law or any gaps in it but how the law is administered about proof of citizenship by applicants for passports or other documents of identity.
Going forward, the President directed that the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control should not confiscate or cancel National Identity Cards issued by NIRA without following due process prescribed by law.
Although the order does not explicitly mention a specific group, it follows allegations that members of the Banyarwanda community have been unfairly denied passports and National Identity Cards despite being recognized as rightful citizens under Uganda’s 1995 Constitution.
Social commentator Frank Gashumba has been vocal about these grievances, alleging that many members of the Banyarwanda community have faced repeated denial of passports or had their documents confiscated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 2021, a group of Banyarwanda led by Gashumba rebranded themselves as “Abavandimwe,” a term aimed at distancing themselves from perceptions of being Rwandan nationals. This move, they argued, was necessitated by widespread discrimination stemming from their association with Rwanda.
Often, this group has accused officials of Ministry of internal affairs of subjecting them to humiliating treatment under tough interrogation when they mention they are Banyarwanda by tribe.
They accuse the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control officials of treating them as foreigners from Rwanda unless they prove themselves otherwise. Among the many documents they are asked to provide to prove their belonging to Uganda include land titles, letters from local leaders, and ancestral records dating back to 1926.
Gashumba contends that while due diligence is understandable, the process unfairly targets the Banyarwanda, as no other tribe is subjected to similar scrutiny.
Museveni in his new order directed that the requirements for the acquisition of passports or other identification documents must apply to all applicants equally, regardless of tribe, ethnicity or community. Gashumba claims that even when they provide all necessary documents, many Banyarwanda applicants are rather advised by immigration officials to apply for citizenship through naturalization—a process he says is unnecessary for those who are citizens by birth.
