The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Two foreign nationals and a Ugandan are in trouble for fraudulently acquiring Ugandan passports. Simon Mundeyi, the Internal Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, identifies the suspects as Ishime Gabriel alias Aime, a Burundian national, and Saunders David Joshua alias Damba from Nigeria, and their Ugandan accomplice Gibson Sseruwajji.
The trio is locked up at Jinja Road Police. According to Mundeyi, Ishime first came to Uganda in 2015 using a Burundian passport, and received the Ugandan National ID, after falsely declaring himself as a Munyankore from Kiruhura district.
Findings by Immigration show that Ishimwe later used the same National ID to process a passport, which he successfully got. Mundeyi said the suspect was arrested at the Busia border while crossing from Uganda to Kenya on his way to Germany.
Saunders David Joshua alias Damba, 27, who has been traveling to Uganda frequently claiming to be a businessman dealing in computers, was also registered as Muganda by their tribe and got the National ID before he started processing for the passport.
Trouble for Saunders started last week, when he was invited for a passport interview, and failed to prove his nationality as a Ugandan. He presented Sseruwaji as his paternal relative, who was found to be among the brokers that have been conning Ugandans to get their passports in Kampala.
Mundeyi says that the passport system has improved and the arrests of foreigners who are trying to acquire Ugandan passports to travel to their desired countries because of restrictions on their countries.
“As for the case of the Nigerian, he said he was looking for ways of flying to Germany and then continuing to Dubai where Nigerian passports have been outlawed. They come here to get our passports and find it easy to go into those countries. We don’t want our passports to lose their credibility and integrity.”Mundeyi said.
Apart from the three in custody, Police are still hunting for another suspect identified as Sam Kalisa, a Rwandan National and resident of Kitemu in Wakiso district who came to Uganda in 2022 through porous borders and impersonated Shafick including his parents to get a National ID as well as applying for a passport.
He was arrested together with the group, but escaped from Jinja Police station.”He found his way and took off, while officers were recording his statement. We have added charges of escaping from the lawful custody on his charges, as the hunt for him goes on,” Mundeyi noted.
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