INTERNAL | AFFAIRS | KAKWENZA

KAMPALA - The Ministry of Internal Affairs has denied allegations that they deliberately declined to issue passports to three children of renowned self-exiled novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. 

Kakwenza, who now resides in Germany, fled the country after he was granted bail.

While addressing journalists at a joint security briefing at the Police headquarters in Naguru Monday, the ministry’s spokesperson, Simon Mudenyi clarified that the applications for the passports were put in March when at the time when the ministry was doing a systems upgrade which lasted for about two months.

“This affected all those who had applied for passports including the children of Kakwenza. Secondly, Kakwenza children are not special from other Ugandans. 

At the time they applied we were upgrading our system and cutting our production by 60%. It is the reason we had a backlog of over 10,000 passports which we have cleared in the past two weeks,” he added.

Simon Peter Mundeyi, Spokesperson Ministry of Internal Affairs addresses journalists during a press conference at the Police Headquarters on June 27, 2022. (Credit: Nancy Nanyonga)

Kakwenza recently petitioned the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) over what he called a continued violation of the right to a passport for his children.

He claimed his three children aged two, four, and nine had been denied their constitutional right of owning a passport by immigration officials.

Passports are ready

Mudenyi noted that the children’s passports are now ready and can be picked up by their biological mother.

“You know we have been having people coming to ask for their passports. These passports are ready and we shall only hand them over to their mother. We do not play politics at immigration. We issue passports to whoever meets the requirements as a Ugandan citizen,” he added.