Uganda Sued Over Digital ID System

An alliance of charities has sued the Ugandan government, according to an article published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, arguing that vulnerable groups have been denied access to potentially life-saving services due to flaws in the national ID card rollout.

The three charities – the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights, Unwanted Witness and the Health Equity and Policy Initiative – estimate that up to one-third of adults do not have the biometric ID card, seven years after the system was introduced.

Most of those affected are poor and marginalised, such as the elderly who have been unable to claim welfare payments, as well as pregnant women who have been turned away from health centres, they said, citing research ¹ conducted last year.

The lack of a national ID has also prevented many Ugandans from opening a bank account, buying a mobile SIM card, enrolling in college, gaining formal employment and getting a passport, they added.

The three organisations filed the lawsuit on 25 April, saying the mandatory use of the national ID was exclusionary and violated citizens’ rights to key services. They want the court to compel the government to accept alternative forms of identification for social and healthcare services.

Officials at the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), which oversees the digital IDs, have previously acknowledged that the system needs improvement, adding that measures would be taken to increase card issuance ².

Brian Kiira, programme officer at the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights, said there had been ‘countless problems’ with the digital ID system since it was introduced in 2015.

‘People are suffering because they cannot get an ID. We’ve tried to engage with the authorities, but nothing has changed. So, we have no option but to take the matter to the court.’ 

The research work conducted by the three Ugandan charities last year said only about 12.7 million cards had been issued for a population of 18.9 million adults in 2019, citing the latest data available from NIRA.

Citizens – especially in rural areas – were unaware of how to register and faced difficulties in travelling long distances and bearing the cost of reaching a registration office, it said.

The study, which involved more than 450 interviews, also found long delays in the issuance of the cards, and a high rate of errors in the spelling of names and dates of birth. As a result, at least 50,000 people over the age of 80 had mistakes on their ID cards or did not have a national ID at all, making them ineligible for senior citizen benefits, they said.

A fee of 50,000 Ugandan shillings (about $13.30) must be paid to correct an ID – an expense that many in the East African nation can ill afford, campaigners said. More than 40% of Ugandans live on less than $1.90 per day, according to World Bank data ³.

Women are less likely to have an ID compared to men, due to factors including lack of awareness, no opportunity to register and having no source documents to verify their identity, said campaigners.

‘The lack of access to get an ID card, the delays and bureaucracy in having it issued, and its mandatory nature have all contributed to making Uganda’s ID system exclusionary,’ commented Dorothy Mukasa, Executive Director at Unwanted Witness.

‘Until they can sort out all the problems and allocate adequate resources to the national ID system, the government should allow other forms of identification – such as a letter from a village official which was accepted in the past.’ 

The case is expected to be heard in the High Court of Uganda in the coming weeks.

1 - www.iser-uganda.org/publications/reports/488-chased-away-and-left-to-die

2 - https://news.trust.org/item/20210608164054-imkqe

3 - https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.DDAY?locations=UG