Sango Bay residents protest exclusion from ID exercise

By Davis Buyondo in Rakai

MORE than 1000 residents of Sango Bay parish in Kakuuto County in Rakai district have protested their exclusion from the National Identity card registration exercise.

Several groups of people in the affected parish have been expressing their displeasure in different community gatherings since last week. 

They are unhappy that government allegedly neglected them due to the presence of refugees in Sango Bay Resettlement camp.

Steven Ssebunya, the Kakuuto LCIII Chairman, told New Vision that the Office of the Prime Minister failed to differentiate between the Sango Bay refugee camp and Sango Bay parish during the exercise.

He explained that instead of excluding the refugees from the exercise they decided to leave out the entire parish. 

“Currently over 95 percent of the residents in communities outside the refugee camp have not been registered and may not benefit from the exercise,” Ssebunya said adding that very few have chosen to walk more than 5 kilometers to register for the IDs at the sub-county in Kakuuto.

Peter Mweruka, the Kabonera LCI Chairperson, appealed to the Prime Minister’s Office and Internal Affairs minister Gen. Aronda Nyakairima to come to their aid.

He explained that most of the residents in his village have always been arrested by security officers who mistake them for refugees or illegal immigrants due to lack of identification.

“Kakuuto Sub-county where Sango bay parish and the refugee camp are found is near Mutukula, a Uganda-Tanzania border post where foreigners sneak into the country. In this case Ugandan citizens should have National IDs to differentiate them from refugees and foreigners.” Mweruka advised.  

However, he appealed to Gen. Aronda to organize a special exercise since the closure of registration at the parish ended on 11th August 2014.

The concerns come at a time when registered citizens are already receiving their cards. The issuance of the IDs commenced on 3rd December 2014 starting with those who registered at enrollment centers in Kampala.

Mathius Kasamba the area MP said he was aware of the concerns adding that he will work hand in hand with Robert Benon Mugabi, the District Chairman, to see how to resolve the matter and have the registration exercise done.

Sango Bay Camp alone has over 500,000 refugees who triple the number of residents in the whole parish.

Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, when contacted, said that it was only the foreign refugee population in the Sango Bay Resettlement Camp that was supposed to be excluded from the exercise and not Ugandan citizens in the communities surrounding the camp.

He said that the exercise involved District Technical Officers, District Registrars and other officials who were supposed to work closely with the Office of the Prime Minister to ensure successful registration of the people.

He further urged residents in the affected parish to remain calm saying the registration exercise will continue until 27th February 2015.

He added that this will provide an opportunity for those who were not registered to have their details captured. The issuance in other districts will be carried out progressively over the next nine months.