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Nandala Mafabi wants the law amended to hike passport emergency application fees to 1 million or 1.5 million shillings except for medical emergencies and national service.
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Members of Parliament on the Public Accounts Committee have asked the Internal Affairs Ministry to hike fees for express passport applicants.
MPs made the demand on Thursday while meeting the accounting officer of the ministry, under secretary Lynette Bagonza.
The chairperson of the committee Budadiri West MP Nathan Nandala Mafabi expressed alarm at the extremely long queues at the immigration control offices along Port Bell road.
Bagonza explained that the queues are a result of recruitment companies engaged in the externalization of labour that decide to pay for emergency passport processing which means that the applicants have to show up immediately at the immigration offices.
The fee for a regular East African e-passport is 250,000 Shillings which takes around two weeks after one has paid the amount in an authorized bank, however one can obtain a passport immediately if they pay for the express service which costs 400,000 Shillings.
Nandala narrated his experience when he encountered heavy traffic at 3:00am at the passport office. He also suggested that even an emergency passport applicant should be given an appointment.
Bagonza noted that it was not anticipated that everyone would opt for the emergency application.
Mafabi demanded that the law be amended to hike emergency application fees to 1 million or 1.5 million shillings except for medical emergencies and national service.
Uganda launched the East African e-passport system in 2018. In December 2019, the Ministry of Internal Affairs launched an online passport application to do away with the long queues. Whereas online application has eased the process, the issue of long queues of people applying for passports has not gone away.
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