The Kibanda North By elections are around the corner. The nomination for NRM’s flag bearer was slated for today and the two big contenders are Idi Amin’s grandson, Taban Idi Amin Tampo and former area MP, Mr Sam Otada.
Mr Amin won the seat in 2016 with 24658 votes against Mr Otada’s 16118 votes. Amin’s grandson was, however, thrown out of the House over among other things a mismatch in the names on his academic documents, his national Identity Card and the national voters’ card.
Whereas Amin’s academic documents bear the name Taban Idi Amin, his voter’s card as of the 2016 General Election bore the name Idi Taban Amini Tampo and the National ID had Idi Taban Amini Tampo.
As the NRM goes to the primaries to select its card bearer, where Mr Otada will tussle it out with Mr Amin, a trove of documents Eagle Online seem to show that Mr Amin has not cleared the issues over which the Court of Appeal based to throw him out of Parliament.
The documents that leaked from Mr Otada’s camp show that although Mr Amin is contesting for the party ticket and subsequently the Kibanda North seat under the name that appears on his academic documents, he didn’t complete the legal process of changing his names.
Could Mr Amin, if he goes ahead to be nominated as NRM flag bearer in the forthcoming by elections in Kibanda North, be a poisoned chalice for the Party?
The Academic documents issue
Whereas his A’ level slip shows that he finished in 2011 at Taibah College, his tertiary institute transcript shows that he finished a three year course in 2013 which raises questions about how that could have been possible given the fact that intake for 2011 A level graduates could have been only possible in 2012.
The dicey issue, however, is his failure to change his name to match those on his academic transcripts owing to the fact the process of acquiring a fresh national ID was halted— he had succeeded in getting one in three days but it was stop listed by the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) pending full investigation.
To get a card with his desired name, Mr Amin had to complete the required legal process.
However, in an advert that appeared in the Uganda gazette dated June 19 2017, Mr Amin only announced an intention to apply to NIRA to change his name to Taban Idi Amin but didn’t follow through to have it changed but instead went ahead to secure a national ID in his desired name.
“I intend to formally and absolutely renounce and abandon the use of the name Id Taban Amin Tampo and adopt in place of those names the name to Taban Idi Amin,” the notice read in part.
After suspecting wrong doing on the part of Mr Amin, Mr Otada wrote to the Police CID demanding an investigation in how Mr Taban got a National ID in three days.
On 29 June 2017, the CID gave Mr Otada a status report on alleged issuance of a national Identity card by NIRA to Hon Idi Taban Amin Tampo. The report was compiled by ASP Twiinemansio Charles and was examined by Obulejo Idro.
After their investigations, Police suggested that ‘the entire academic papers of Hon Idi Taban Amini Tampo be investigated as the circumstances tend to suggest two persons i.e. the holder of the academic documents, Taban Idi Amini and the National ID card holder Idi Taban Amini Tampo’.
“It was observed that NIRA erred by producing a card within three days without proof of a deed poll as required by the law since the circumstances as requested by the applicant in his statutory declaration truly showed that there was change of name not merely drop of a name,” the police status report notes.
It further noted: “It was observed that Idi Amin Tampo wanted to change the names of Taban Idi Amin to match the order of names as reflected on academic documents that he presented.”
In the final communication on the matter released by police to Mr Otada on July 12 2017, NIRA’s director legal, Enid Edroma is quoted telling police that after getting a court order challenging Mr Amin’s registration process, it went ahead and ‘took steps to stop list the card in the names of Idi Taban Amin’ which the authority had issued.
In a petition to NRM, Mr Otada challenges Mr Amin’s move to contest as the Party flag bearer saying his application for nomination does not bear a voter card number but an Application for a card ID 13257300043FT.
“As it stands right now, Taban Idi Amin is not a registered voter as understood by section 3 of the Parliamentary Election Act and therefore does not qualify to participate in our party primaries and subsequent national by election.
“The facts that led to the disqualification of Taban Idi Amin as a Member of Parliament for Kibanda North County are similar to the circumstances before you as he has not cured the mission or discrepancy in his name and he is not a registered voter,” the petition reads in part.
The petition further states: “There’s no evidence that his application as a voter to the Electoral Commission will be accepted as the same person with the same bio data already exists in their system. Be as it may, what is clear from the onset is the fact that at the time of his nomination with you, he is not a registered voter.”
Efforts to contact either Taban Idi Amin or Sam Otada for this story were futile by press time.
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