Court asked to halt issuance of East African passports

Two parties have asked the High Court in Kampala to halt the ongoing process of issuance of East African passports to Ugandan citizens.

Government last year announced a move to phase out Ugandan passports in favour of regional passports that everyone is supposed to have.

On Monday, one Michael Aboneka, a concerned citizen and  the Centre for Constitutional Governance(CCG), a constitutional watchdog asked High Court registrar Sarah Langa  to issue an interim order halting the entire process of recalling Ugandan passports and the issuance of new East African passports.

“Under the rule of law, government is accountable to Ugandans, should be transparent and whatever it does should be in line with aspirations of the people,” the parties lawyer, Gawaya Tegule told court on Monday.

“There is no law under which government is proceeding to issue East African passports.”

The lawyer argued that before the process of recalling Ugandan passports and issuance of new ones, government ought to first sensitize the public and get consent of the legal regime.

He noted that it will do no harm for government to halt the process and wait for determination of the main case before Justice Musa Ssekaana, whose hearing kicks off in March.

“This court should issue an interim order halting the process until the main application is heard and disposed of,” the lawyer argued.

Government protests

The Ugandan government through the Attorney General however told court that issuance of an interim order will be an abuse of court process since the case has been overtaken by events.

“Government started receiving applications in December last year and  some applicants have already got and are using their international East African passports,” Allan Mukama, who represented the Attorney General told court.

He argued that halting a process which has already kicked off will be a wastage of the taxpayers’ money by court.

According to the Attorney General’s lawyer, issuance of the International East African passports is in compliance with a directive by the East African Council of Ministers for all regional countries to have East African passports by January 2018.

“We started our process late yet all other East African countries have already started issuing East African passports,” he said.

The government representative said that the new passports are also as a result of a  recommendation by the International Civil Aviation Authority for all countries to issue passports embedded with electronic chips that bear biometric data of the holders.

“They will still be passports for the Republic of Uganda but will also have East African words on them. Their issuance will be like the old ones ,”the Attorney General’s representative told court.

High Court registrar Sarah Langa adjourned the matter to Friday January 25 to deliver her ruling on the interim order sought for by the two parties.