Govt extends validity of expired national IDs

Kampala August 15—Government has extended the validity of expired national Identification cards, IDs, for another one-year after running behind the renewal schedule.

Most national IDs were issued between 2004 and 2005 and the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), said at least 15.8 million IDs are expected to expire by August next year, 2025.

Government says it has been in contact with contractors to carry out the production of new national IDs and it now appears many Ugandans will be carrying expired documents by the time contractors get to work.

State Minister for Internal Affairs, Gen. David Muhoozi, told the Committee of Defence in Parliament Thursday August 15, that government is behind schedule to process the new IDs.

He said that the body responsible for registration and IDs, NIRA, faced delays in issuing new IDs, hence the decision to change the expiry dates. NIRA is also required to deliver data to the Electoral Commission by November 30th 2024 that will be used as the national voters’ register ahead of the 2026 general elections.

Gen. Muhoozi told the committee that the earlier planned June 2024 scheduled mass enrolment exercise, faced delays occasioned by the due diligence that had to be conducted on the company that was meant to deliver the national security system. That system was meant to be used in the exercise, but the contract was only finally signed early July 2024.

“Because we need time in between to ensure that business continues and people are not disrupted, that anxiety you alluded to and we have done so by extension of one year plus or minus so that we ensure that people don’t get upset by what they do”, Gen. Muhoozi told the committee.

Minister Muhoozi explained that the extension would be done through a Statutory Instrument Amendment No. 2, regulations 2024 already published in the gazette on august 12th 2024, hence the Ids that were due to expire within that period will be extended by one year. “This should sort the anxiety that was starting in the public regarding on what we do, between now and when we get the new Ids”, he said.

The minister also informed the committee that unregistered citizens total to 17.2 million while cards expiring by January 2025 are 3.7million and the cards expiring beginning August 2024 to December 31st 2025 are 15.8million.