The Chief Justice, Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo presided over the swearing-in ceremony of Ms Rosemary Kisembo as the newly appointed Executive Director of the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) as its board member.
At the ceremony which took place at the Judiciary headquarters, Ms Kisembo Ms Rosemary Kisembo took both the Oath of Secrecy and Oath of Office.
She replaces Ms Judy Obitre–Gama whose contract as Executive Director expired last year.
By law, as per the Registration of Persons Act, 2015, the agency’s Executive Director becomes a member and the secretary to its Board of Directors.
In his remarks, the Chief Justice urged the new Executive Director to fight corruption at NIRA as one of the ways to improve public trust. “Fight corruption as a functional institution, whether the real one or the perceived corruption,” the Chief Justice said, adding that corruption cripples service delivery and public trust of any institution.
He also challenged the board to “put in place an integrated system between NIRA and Police where lost ID cards can be traced and information shared…without compromising security.”
The NIRA Board Chairperson, Mr Joseph N. Biribonwa shared that despite the plans to improve service delivery by introducing online applications and migration from the old to the new digital ID card among other innovations, the Authority was still faced with several challenges including the ageing technology and equipment, negative perception and insufficient manpower.
He however assured the CJ that after “migrating to the new ID card, the people of Uganda will be served with efficiency.”
The swearing-in ceremony was witnessed by members of NIRA Board of Directors including Brig. Gen. Stephen Kwiringira, who has been serving as Ag ED, the Registrar High Court, Samuel Emokor, and the Judiciary Public Relations Officer, Jamson Karemani among others.
