Internal Affairs Minister Rose Akol has asked Rwandan nationals in Uganda who have both Ugandan and Rwandan national identity cards to surrender one, saying that this is against the country’s laws.
Minister Akol was on Sunday speaking to locals at the Mirama Hills border post, who included Rwandan Nationals.
The Minister was in the area to ascertain the readiness of the Mirama-Kagitumba border post in Ntungamo district which is set to be commissioned by President Yoweri Museveni and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame on the 23rd of this month.
Akol told the residents that her ministry was aware of the fact many Rwandan citizens with Rwanda IDs are in also possession of Ugandan IDs. She added that many of these were not aware of the consequences of this situation.
“Many of them think that they can better go about their business in Uganda when they have our national ID cards,” she said. This, she noted however, complicates security management between the two countries.
The District police commander Ntungamo district Baker Kawonawo revealed during the meeting that fighting cross border crimes especially human trafficking has been greatly hampered by cases of people with multiple IDs.
The Minister appealed to the officials manning the border post to continue sensitizing the people so that those who illegally possess national IDs can surrender them peacefully.
Late last year, in the build up to last February’s general elections, opposition politicians raised the red flag that government was deliberately issuing national identity cards to Rwandans to vote for incumbent President Yoweri Museveni.
The NRM however vehemently denied these charges, noting that such a venture was costly and untenable.
Minister Akol on Sunday confirmed that her ministry has in the past months been collecting Ugandans IDs from Rwandan nationals.
She noted however that the number of those surrendering them voluntarily had drastically declined lately.
“In the past we used to collect at least 10 IDs per day from Rwanda Nationals but this figure has gone down, and we know that many of them still have them,”
She attributed this to Rwandans will strong business interest in the country, as well as those who wish to have duo citizenship.
Mr. Stephen Mutambi, an immigration officer at the border revealed that the most of the illegal immigrants from Rwanda come in when the water levels on River Kagera decrease. He noted that several people have drowned in the river.