The Minister of Internal Affairs Gen Kahinda Otafiire has confirmed that the ministry has run out of new passports.
Otafiire however apologized for the delay in issuing of the passports, saying the company which was contracted to supply booklets seems to have some shortcomings.
“We apologise for the delay in issuance of passports. The company contracted to supply booklets seems to have some shortcomings but we are working around this problem,” Otafiire said.
“Please bear with us, the situation will improve soon,” he added.
The Deputy Speaker, Thomas Teyebwa, last week tasked the Minister of Internal Affairs to explain the continued delays in processing of the new electronic passports.
He gave the directive following a matter of national importance raised by Nakawa Division East MP, Mr. Ronald Balimwezo, during plenary sitting on Tuesday, 20 September 2022.
Balimwezo said that since introduction of the e-passports, applicants are subjected to waiting periods of over three months before their travel documents are issued.
Government launched the Ugandan East African e-passport in 2018, phasing out the Ugandan machine-readable passports. Subsequently, Ugandans were given up to April 2022 as the deadline to acquire the new e-passports.
An ordinary passport costs Shs250,000 and its production must take approximately two weeks while an express passport costs Shs400,000 with a production period of three to five days.
