Foreigners held over passports
Sep 15, 2006
THE Immigration Department has arrested two Kenyans and a Rwandese for attempting to obtain Ugandan passports.
By Geresom Musamali
THE Immigration Department has arrested two Kenyans and a Rwandese for attempting to obtain Ugandan passports.
Internal affairs state minister Matiya Kasaija and Anthony Namara, the commissioner for passport control, paraded the men at a press conference at the Government Media Centre on Thursday.
Present was immigration senior legal and public relations officer Eunice Kisembo.
The foreigners are Ali Baba Rusagara (Rwandese), Herbert Omondi and Francis Mwangi Kamau (Kenyans).
Namara said Rusagara claimed to be a Munyabutumbi (Mukiga from Kanungu) but when interrogated, he could neither speak Rukiga nor English but instead preferred to communicate in Luganda. When given simple arithmetic work in Luganda, however, he could not express himself.
Namara said Omondi attributed his presence in Uganda to a long-time wish to become Ugandan but he had a Kenyan passport endorsed with a Uganda work permit.
“We wouldn’t like our passport to be relegated to the low status passports of some other countries which attract suspicion whenever presented at immigration points,†Kasaija said.
“What we are doing is not countering Pan-Africanism but to just ensure everybody belongs where they are supposed to belong,†he added.
Kasaija said there were clear channels of acquiring Ugandan citizenship and foreigners who wish to become Ugandans should follow them.
THE Immigration Department has arrested two Kenyans and a Rwandese for attempting to obtain Ugandan passports.
Internal affairs state minister Matiya Kasaija and Anthony Namara, the commissioner for passport control, paraded the men at a press conference at the Government Media Centre on Thursday.
Present was immigration senior legal and public relations officer Eunice Kisembo.
The foreigners are Ali Baba Rusagara (Rwandese), Herbert Omondi and Francis Mwangi Kamau (Kenyans).
Namara said Rusagara claimed to be a Munyabutumbi (Mukiga from Kanungu) but when interrogated, he could neither speak Rukiga nor English but instead preferred to communicate in Luganda. When given simple arithmetic work in Luganda, however, he could not express himself.
Namara said Omondi attributed his presence in Uganda to a long-time wish to become Ugandan but he had a Kenyan passport endorsed with a Uganda work permit.
“We wouldn’t like our passport to be relegated to the low status passports of some other countries which attract suspicion whenever presented at immigration points,†Kasaija said.
“What we are doing is not countering Pan-Africanism but to just ensure everybody belongs where they are supposed to belong,†he added.
Kasaija said there were clear channels of acquiring Ugandan citizenship and foreigners who wish to become Ugandans should follow them.