Following his meeting with the Abavandimwe Council, at State House last month, President Yoweri Museveni has issued directives and guidelines regarding Ugandan Banyarwanda Citizenship.
The issue of Ugandan Banyarwanda citizenship has been so thorny in recent decades, with some citizens referring to them as foreigners.
While, the Ugandan Banyarwanda had tolerated such references, they found it difficult to stand decisions by the immigration officials and NIRA who denied some of them and their children passports and national IDs.
Now, Museveni has issued directives and guidelines that should be used to inform issuance of IDs and passports to Banyarwanda in Uganda.
In a lengthy statement on the matter, the president shared his findings on the matter after listening to the Abavandimwe Council and officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Immigration and the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA).
Below are Museveni’s thoughts, directives and guidelines on the issue of Ugandan Banyarwanda citizenship:
“Citizens of Uganda, my recent meeting with the Bavandimwe, the Banyarwanda of Uganda – on the 23rd of June, 2025, at State House, Entebbe, in the presence of Ministers and Officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Immigration and the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), helped me to understand where the Citizenship problem of our immigrant Community was coming from.
Indeed, I was beginning to be irritated by claims that, especially our Banyarwanda immigrants, were being mistreated.
I was beginning to think that some People are making false allegations on the matter for some evil ulterior motives.
However, that meeting helped me to know where the problem has been and here it is below.
The problem of Citizenship in Uganda, is a mass, Community issue, best known to and best handled by, the Communities, area by area. The bureaucrats in Immigration or NIRA, should not have been the ones to take the lead. The bureaucrats should be guided by the Communities’ representative structures, the LCs and the local Elders.
Why? It is because we, the locals, are the ones who know our People.
As an indigenous person of Ntungamo, I can authoritatively tell you who the People of, at least, the three parishes of Kikoni, Nyaburiiza and Ruhoko, are and when they came into that area. It is totally unfair and unnecessary, to waste the time of our People with bureaucrats in Kampala, to determine who is a Ugandan and who is not. The bureaucrats, should be told and record who the Citizens are for ID cards, Citizenship and Passports.
If there are People who are telling lies to infiltrate non-citizens into our Country, complaints should be filed, investigations done and action taken. The fear of that infiltration should not, however, delay the giving of the IDs, Citizenship or Passports.
Be guided by the local decisions in the matter. If there is fraud, those documents can be impeached even when they are already issued and the culprits will be punished.
Why do I say all this? It is because I realized that bureaucrats taking the lead in the matter can cause grave injustice in the situations that are very clear and easy to distinguish by we, the locals.
I was baptized into the Christian faith along with my Parents in 1947, when we came from the traditional religion of Okubaandwa at Kinoni. One of my 3 God-parents was Yoramu Kabuteembe, our local Church warden at Kyamate, who had, apparently, come from Rwanda long before I was born.
Besides, since his home was near the School, I would have my ntaanda (packed lunch) eaten there. Indeed, I knew his mother, Maliiza, as my grandmother. Then, you have E. Kapa, the first MP of Ankole into the LEGCO of Uganda from 1955. His father, Kiteende and his mother, Kyamaziinga, had, apparently, come to Uganda in 1910. Kapa is the father of Ambassador Katana. You, then, have Khamis, Kyaara-Kitanaaba, on account of being so black that even his nails were black and the Banyankore thought he did not wash.
He was living at a distance from my area, at Kakukuuru, in Rweikiniro Sub-County and was part of the Nubian Community that had been brought from South Sudan by the British as soldiers of Emin Pasha. Then you had our Indians of Ntungamo in the persons of Budala, Haali, etc. All these are Citizens of Uganda automatically, unless they choose not to be.
It is not for the immigration Board to accord them Citizenship or not. They are, unless they choose not to be. It could not be fair that Mzee Kabuteembe or Khamis or Budala, come to beg the Board of Immigration for their right as Citizens. In the mass registration, Mzee Kaguta, Mzee Esiteri Kokundeka, etc should have been registered together with their area-mates: Kabuteembe, Khamis, Budala, Munyanshongore, etc.
This was the frame of mind in the discussion on this issue in the CA. That is how we decided on the different categories of Citizenship: the ones whose families were here by 1926 when the final borders of Uganda were drawn, the ones who came after that, etc. The law is not a problem. It seems that the problem has been the implementers.
Some People were trying to talk about the categories — that there should be no categories. That one, we reject. Those categories are facts and nobody who does not have an evil ulterior motive, should have a problem with facts.
What we cannot accept now is dual Citizenship with neighbouring or, indeed, all the African Countries, for now. Dual Citizenship should for now be for our children who had to go to European, Arab and Asian Countries, mainly because of the insecurity here and their descendants. If the language is the one confusing when the law refers to citizenship by birth, that can be studied when we have time.
However, the substance is when one came into Uganda. Is it by 1926 or after?
In that regard, the verification committee should ask the applicant:
i) What is your name?
ii) What is your date of birth?
iii) Where were you born?
iv) What is your father’s name, tribe or origin/place of birth?
v) What is your mother’s name, tribe or origin/place of birth?
vi) What is your clan?
vii) How long have you lived in Uganda?
viii) Are you married to a Ugandan Citizen?
ix) Do you have any documentation to prove your marriage?
x) How long have you been married?
xi) What language do you speak?
xii) When did your family come to Uganda and where did they settle?
xii) Do you intend to continuously live permanently in Uganda?
xiii) Do you have any other Citizenship?
xiv) Are you willing to renounce that other citizenship?
Hence, I direct as follows:
(1) All registration of Citizenship should be done locally.
(2) No payments should be made by those who were here by 1962.
(3) Those who came after 1962, should pay.
(4) With the pre-1962 families, it should be the local verification committees to do the work and the bureaucrats, should be guided by the work of the local bodies.
(5) Many of the refugees went back. However, of those who remained, if they want to become Ugandans, we should allow them after amending the law. With the East African Federation, we shall have the Citizenship of East Africa.
In light of the above directives, I am guiding the bureaucrats as follows:
Decentralization of Citizenship Verification
i) During the ongoing mass enrollment and mass renewal exercise at the parishes, ALL Citizenship Verification will be conducted by the Local Verification Committees comprised of LCI Committee, an ISO staff and an elderly representative from the parish at this level.
ii) NIRA shall receive an application, enroll the applicant and issue a National Identity Card.
iii) Where NIRA is in doubt of the applicant’s citizenship, they will issue the application a National Identity Card and refer the matter to local verification committee for a decision.
iv) If neither NIRA nor the applicant is satisfied with the decision of the local verification committee, they may refer the decision to the District Citizenship Verification Committee.
v) Each District shall have a District Citizenship Verification Committee which shall be the final level for verification of citizenship of any person where there is doubt.
vi) The District Citizenship Verification Committee shall be comprised of the Resident District Commissioner as the Chairperson, District Chairperson, the Councilor from the Sub-County or Division of the applicant and DISO.
vii) The District Citizenship Verification Committee shall assume an appellate role in cases where citizenship is doubted.
viii) Where the District Citizenship Verification Committee is satisfied that the applicant is a citizen, NIRA shall be notified accordingly.
ix) Where the District Citizenship Verification Committee have determined that the applicant is not a citizen, the Committee will send its findings to NIRA who will cancel the National Identify Card that was issued to the applicant.
x) No payments shall be made by those persons applying for citizenship if they came to Uganda by
1962.
xi) Families/Applicants who came after 1962 should pay for any immigration facilities that they apply for.
Therefore, with this guidance, there is no reason whatsoever, why the applicant should not tell the verification committee or the bureaucrats the truth. False declaration is an offence under the law.”
Even President Museveni has previously said that most people who call themselves Baganda in Central Uganda are actually Banyarwanda. (See Details Here and There).
Relatedly, the Rwandan President Paul Kagame has spoken out on his health amdist sickness rumors. (See Details Here).
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