Simon Peter Mundeyi the spokesperson of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has highlighted that the issuance of passports is currently back to normal since they don’t have backlogs and disturbing crowds at the Ministry headquarters.
“We are not going to go back to those days of the crisis, we now have enough passport booklets, staff, and infrastructure to handle the public, in fact, our house is in order” Mundeyi emphasized.
Mundeyi made these remarks while addressing journalists on Monday at the weekly security briefing held at Police headquarters in Naguru.
Mundeyi however expressed concern about the little turn-up of passport applicants being recorded lately at their offices and those that don’t pick up their processed passports at Kyambogo.
“Our staff also seats idol lately because of the few passport applications we handle” worried Mundeyi noted while calling upon members of the media to also use this chance to apply for passports.
On September 27th the Ministry of Internal Affairs blamed the Russian war for the passport shortage in the country citing that some materials used in making the booklets were imported from there.
During that period, the Ministry noted that the country had a daily shortage of 500 passports an issue that sparked off a debate of incompetence amongst the nationals who were by then fed up with the system.
The Internal Affairs Ministry mouthpiece also hinted at the International Civil Aviation Authority Organization (ICAAO-PKD) Board meeting that is going to be hosted by Uganda at Speke Resort Munyonyo to discuss further issues concerning Aviation and Electronic passports.
Mundeyi also revealed that Uganda is to open another Diaspora Passport issuing office on Monday 21st to bring the number of diaspora offices to 6 across the globe.
“This office that is going to be launched in Copenhagen in Denmark is to help Ugandans living in that part of the world get access to passports before flying back to the country” he highlighted.
He also noted that the Ministry is yet to procure Mobile Enrollment Kits which will ease the process of capturing fingerprints and passport photos for those that have emergencies that can’t allow them to access the offices.
