45 Ugandans in US get dual citizenship

Special Presidential Assistant on diaspora affairs, Florence Kiremerwa( L) poses with one of the dual citizenship recipients 

It took them one day to get dual citizenship. But the normal process may take more than five months.

According to Florence Kiremerwa, the Special Presidential Assistant on diaspora, a team from the Ministry of Internal Affairs led by the permanent secretary, Dr. Benon Mutambi, was invited to the US to conduct the exercise.

"We have had issues in applying for dual citizenship; E-visa and other services from internal affairs ministry. E-visa/ passport renewal and dual citizenship processes that are usually cumbersome and tedious due to the bureaucracy and red tape back home," Kiremerwa said during an event at Washington DC on March 25.

Application for dual citizenship status cost $400 (sh1.4m). At the event in US, the dual citizenship registration directorate headed by Saad Norman Kityamuwesi collected sh63m.

Kityamuwesi stated that Article 15 of the Constitution allows dual citizenship, which is defined as a status of a person who is a legal citizen of two countries.

"A citizen of Uganda who desires to acquire the citizenship of another country while retaining his or her citizenship of Uganda shall give notice in writing to the board (National Citizenship and Immigration) in a prescribed form and accompanied by statutory declaration that he or she is a citizen of Uganda," Kityamuwesi said.

 
Kiremerwa told New Vision that Ugandans were grateful that Government agreed to send a delegation, a move they said has helped them bypass the bureaucracy of applying for dual citizenship at home.

"Ugandans are grateful that the government sent a delegation. They requested that such workshops be organised in other states in US and countries frequently," she said.

The Uganda Citizenship and Immigration Control (Amendment) Act, 2009 also provides for dual citizenship. Dual citizenship, according to the Act, means the simultaneous possession of two citizenships one of which is Ugandan.

The Act bars the President and all Government officials, including security officials, from acquiring dual citizenship.