Following Public pressure , government has dropped the idea of charging Ugandans for the new IDs with enhanced security features that will be issued start soon.
Minister of State for Internal Affairs, Gen. David Muhoozi in a statement to parliament on preparations for mass renewal of national identity cards., said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has started the procurement process for ICT equipment, and training of staff in the new National Security Information System is ongoing in India.
“Following the approval of funding, the new National Security Information System-related procurements have also commenced with requests for approval by the National Information Technology Authority – Uganda obtained,” Muhoozi stated.
Muhoozi articulated the plan for hard-to-reach districts, saying standby generators and solar panels will be provided to counter power blackouts.
About the hard to reach areas Muhoozi said thus : “Approximately 2,750 kits with solar panels, will be available in addition to each district having a 5KV generator for the exercise. Each kit will have two connectivity devices and connectivity mapping is ongoing for each parish countrywide,” he said.
But the Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa who chaired the session reminded the minister and the executive about the importance of this national exercise ahead of the 2026 general elections and noted that any delays in implementation , will create a national crisis .
“This is the process where we extract the register for the general elections, which should be ready by January 2025. You need to renew over 15.2 million IDs and enroll 17 million new IDs by June this year, you need to move fast such that we do not get into a national crisis,” said Tayebwa.
