Mbidde wants special law drafted over Banyarwanda rights
Feb 23, 2024
"It is wrong for the 1995 Constitution to specify that citizenship should only be confined to the birthright without considering the nationality of a person in question," Mbidde added.
Uganda Rwanda Cultural Development Association legal advisor Fred Mukasa Mbidde. (Photos by Maria Wamala)
By Isaac Nuwagaba and John Masaba
Journalists @New Vision
____________________ Donalt Kananura Chairperson Uganda Rwanda Cultural Development Association Uganda Rwanda Cultural Development Association legal advisor Fred Mukasa Mbidde, Chairperson task force Simon Kaitana and Executive Committee member Frank Sserubiri interact after the association meeting Youth member of the Uganda Rwanda Cultural Development Association Muhumuza Christopher
Democratic Party (DP) deputy president general Fred Mukasa Mbidde has urged the Government to enact a special law to guard against what he terms as discrimination against Banyarwanda living in Uganda.
Mbidde proposes that the 1995 constitutional laws be amended to accommodate Banyarwanda who were not in Uganda in 1926 at the drawing of boundaries to be given citizenship as part of communities that were in existence when the 1962 Constitution was designed in 1961 at Lancaster House in London.
Addressing a consultative meeting of the Uganda Banyarwanda Cultural Development Association (UBCDA) at Sheraton Kampala Hotel on Thursday, February 22, 2024, Mbidde revealed that the Government has used specific articles from the 1995 Constitution to deny Banyarwanda passports and national identification cards without Banyarwanda rights and interests reflected.
“It is wrong to consider 1926 border demarcations to ascertain who is a Ugandan or Rwandan because real Uganda was created in 1962. Before that time, it was British agricultural fields managed by the Imperial British East African Company, with no legal mandate to specify who was a clear Ugandan,” he argued.
"It is wrong for the 1995 Constitution to specify that citizenship should only be confined to the birthright without considering the nationality of a person in question," Mbidde added.
Much as Banyarwanda is listed among the 65 indigenous groups, the 1995 Constitution further states that parents or grandparents of citizens by birth must have been resident within the state of Uganda as of February 1, 1926, when the country’s borders were finalised.
“If you look at what is going on currently, our communities have been denied opportunities to look for international jobs outside Uganda and if this issue is not addressed, the forth-coming national identification exercise shall leave Banyarwanda stateless,” he said.
As a matter of urgency, Mbidde has embarked on the constitutional changing process regarding the proposed, ‘Banyarwanda and Other Roving Groups Identification and Management Bill 2024,’ which he said could guarantee Banyarwanda full citizenship rights.
“By 2025, an estimated 11 million Banyarwanda in Uganda could become stateless with the new registration process of national identity cards,” he added.
Statistics compiled during the 2014 national census by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics estimate the number of Banyarwanda living in Uganda to be over 250,000 people.
Banyarwanda could also be blocked from the 2026 general election unless the Banyarwanda in Uganda secures full citizenship rights, according to Mbidde.
UBCDA chairperson Simon Kaitana said the 1995 Constitution tactfully excluded Banyarwanda from citizenship by asserting that it is only those whose grandfathers were in Uganda by 1926 yet 1962 recognises them as Ugandans.
Much as Banyarwanda is listed among the indigenous groups as per the 1995 Constitution, many of them settled in Uganda after 1926 and lack documented proof of their grandparents’ residence in Uganda and thus have since lost their citizenship.
"Despite being born in Uganda, we are seen by many as a stateless tribe with our ethnic name ‘Banyarwanda’ (meaning the people of Rwanda) bearing the name of a foreign nation, “Rwanda,” a sovereign state in the East African Community which got independence from Belgium in January 1962," he said.
Uganda reviewed its constitutional process in 1994 during the Constitutional Assembly (CA) before the 1995 constitution, setting up stringent citizenship requirements that are still in place today.
“The 1995 Constitution is redundant and should again be changed to address the rights and interests of Banyarwanda,” Kaitana added.
Bavandimwe in Uganda
"By the fact that the name Banyarwanda links us to the name of a foreign country, I had suggested that we have it changed to Abavandimwe 'brethren' for us to avoid discrimination among other tribes," Frank Gashumba, a political analyst said.
“Our current generation might not be the beneficiary in this but this can be of great help in the future for us to stop dehumanising criticism by Ugandans who call us foreigners,” he added.
Prof Kanyeihamba weighs in
"During the constitutional making process, there was an animated debate on which name should be given to Rwandan–Ugandans," Justice (rtd) George Wilson Kanyeihamba said.
Kanyeihamba who chaired the legal affairs committee in the Constituency Assembly before the enactment of the 1995 Constitution, said all the available options were exhausted amidst mixed reactions.
“The ethnic Tutsi wanted to be referred to as Banyarwanda while the ethnic Hutu wanted to be referred to as Bafumbira (an ethnic group largely residing in Kisoro district, which borders Rwanda in the southeast),” he said.
“Eventually, there was a compromise. We said, let’s have both recognised as two tribes (Banyarwanda and Bafumbira),” he added: "Since then, the Banyarwanda declined to mix with other Ugandans and have since then kept hyping their identity demanding special recognition as Banyarwanda in Uganda which we objected to".
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