Ugandans can use expired national IDs to cross borders, says Internal Affairs

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has said that Ugandans with expired national IDs can ably cross borders and travel across the East African region without any disturbance.

With national cards issued in 2014, this year, most of them are expected to expiry.

Addressing journalists on Monday, Internal Affairs spokesperson, Simon Mundeyi said Ugandans whose national IDs expired can easily cross from Uganda to Kenya, South Sudan, Burundi and Rwanda without any disturbance.

People have been wondering on social media are they going to be disturbed in terms of travel with National ID? The answer is no! That National ID you carry has a NIN. A NIN does not expire and it is the most important feature on that National ID. So, you will continue to transact all businesses even with that expired National ID,” Mundeyi said.

He said that expired national IDs can also be used to process passport and open bank accounts, explaining that one only needs to present their National Identification Number(NIN) and they will able to have their passports processed and bank account opened.

Mundeyi noted that the Internal Affairs Ministry system is integrated with the National Identification and Registration Authority(NIRA) which allows them to access data on the national ID using the NIN.

Besides traveling, Mundeyi noted that Ugandans are still able to use the expired National IDs to process passports or open bank accounts.

NIRA will next month kick off a mass enrollment and registration exercise for upgraded national IDs allover the country.

This will see the current expired national IDs renewed and those without any given new ones.