Uganda’s minority groups that are not recognized as indigenous under the country’s current laws are pushing for an amendment of the third schedule of the 1995 constitution that excluded and denied them citizenship rights.
The third schedule of the Ugandan constitution lists indigenous communities who are entitled to claim primary citizenship by birth due to having been residents in the Uganda protectorate before February 1, 1926, the date when the final borders of the country were established by the British Colonial administration.
But as the new constitution was drafted in 1995, several indigenous groups that were already in Uganda by the time the borders were drawn were left out by the framers of the constitution.
In a joint petition to the country’s speaker of parliament last week, the groups said that this exclusion has over time denied them the right to claim citizenship by birth, limiting their access to essential services, social protection, and opportunities for development.
The groups, including the Bahaya, Bakabu, Bakingwe, Baziba, Mosopishiek, Maragoli, and Sabaot among others now maintain a status of statelessness.
Article 1 (1) of the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines a stateless person as a person who is not considered a national by any State under the operation of its law.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Uganda, the country also has groups under this category that are descendants of migrants and refugees who are currently perceived as foreigners despite having no connection to their place of origin, although their number is unknown.
These groups have been forced to involuntarily change their identities and tribes to match with those that the constitution recognizes just to access government services, a move that they say infringes on their rights and threatens their cultures.
“We live on borrowed identities. We must deliberately deceive the government in some way. I personally feel that I am losing my Identity and that is the only thing that makes me an African, it is humiliating,” said Emmanuel Kyalimba from the Bagabu community.
Following accusations of being a foreigner, David Chemtai from the Mosopisjek community who declined to change his identity was pushed off government payroll at his local government job which he had held for two years.
Some members from these communities confess that work permits are required of them before getting jobs in the private sector, difficulties in accessing social security savings, and acquiring travel documents, Identity cards. hardships in purchasing land and benefiting from government programs like the parish development model.
A bill moved by MP Jacob Karubanga on July 5, 2022, seeking to amend the third schedule of the constitution to add these minority groups, was stood over by parliament after its first reading, to provide room for a holistic amendment of the Constitution according to Speaker Anitah Among.
“I notice that the object of the Bill is to amend the Third Schedule of the Constitution. Whereas we are duty bound to ensure equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized such as the ethnic communities that the Bill seeks to include in the Constitution, it is imperative that this is done comprehensively,” Among said.
The speaker referred the bill to the Ministry of constitutional affairs for further review and advice.
Karubanga, who is trying to resurrect the debate, argues that the bill could not wait for the entire constitutional review since it was urgent and sensitive.
The bill, he added, was also earlier unanimously passed by parliament specifically to be treated as a special amendment.
“We have shown the ministry that actually these people exist and the minister has appreciated that fact from his verbal commitments. These people can’t access several services and we cannot continue to have them like that. As A country, we also need to fast track our commitment to have reduced the level of statelessness by 2024,” Karubanga said.
In 2019, the government pledged to recognize some of these groups by 2024.
Nobert Mao, the country’s minister for Justice and constitutional affairs said that the government was committed to fast-track this particular amendment after consultations that will go up to the grassroots of the affected communities.
He added that not only are these communities missing out on government services but are also a threat to national security.
“Stateless people can become mercenaries since they are an easy target of recruitment by terrorist groups and rebels. They can be a real problem to the states where they live. We will support the legal reforms that are being proposed,” Mao said.
The government had earlier already assigned the Uganda Law Review Commission to start work on a constitutional review including the fate of the stateless people in the country.
According to Mao, his ministry in the meantime will muscle through the single amendment of the third schedule of the constitution ahead of the wider constitutional review.
