PM defends voluminous ID registration forms

By Moses Walubiri & Henry Sekanjako

Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi has made a spirited defense of what some critics of the ongoing national ID registration have described as ‘voluminous registration forms’, saying “they are necessary to make sure that all those registered are Ugandans.”

The registration forms in question have come in for severe criticism from a section of society, with people seeking to get registered asked a string of questions that some think are unnecessary.

Among the questions asked include birth certificate, marriage certificate, passport number, LC identification letter, tribe and clan.

“These questions and the long forms are necessary to make sure that people being registered are bonafide Ugandans,” Mbabazi said during the Prime Minister’s Question Time yesterday admitting that the process has been hit with glitches due to inadequacy of registration kits.

Mbabazi knocked back allusions by Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Wafula Oguttu that the voluminous registration forms “are putting off peasants who very busy tending to their gardens.”

MPs heard that the ID registration process kicked off with a few registration kits (cameras and laptops), admitting that a number of parishes haven’t been covered yet.

“It’s true, many parishes are yet to be covered but the situation will soon change because new kits are set to be imported,” Mbabazi noted.

The detailed information required from those registering seem to vindicate government since opposition has always claimed that the process might see foreigners like South Sudanese, Congolese and Rwandese acquire national IDs.

In the same interface, Mbabazi told MPs that government is in the final phase of a feasibility study on erecting electric fences around game parks and game reserves to reduce human-animal conflicts.

“We have been benchmarking in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and soon we shall table this report in parliament,” Mbabazi said in response to Cadet Benjamin’s query on the mooted policy that many think can better protect communities living around game parks from marauding wild animals.

Last month, Minister of Tourism, Maria Mutagambwa, told MPs that government was toying with the idea of erecting electric fences around game parks, although admitting that the venture would be prohibitively expensive.