registrants. Explaining the problems with fingerprint validation, we were told that “[s]ome people those machines refused, and they were never able to register.” The registration process also enforces very strict, but not always clear, definitions of eligibility. First of all, the eligibility criteria for the national ID programme exclude members of certain ethnic groups who were not recognized as official tribes in Uganda’s 1995 Constitution,75 such as the Maragoli. This exclusion is coded into the system: registration officers need to select a tribe in order to complete the process, but Maragoli is simply not listed as an option. Those who were born in different countries, even if they had lived in Uganda their entire life, were also ineligible and excluded. We met Cheptoek in Nebbi, who was the mother of the LC1 chairperson. Cheptoek was born in Congo, but married a Ugandan many years ago and has been living in Uganda ever since. After she was turned Figure 7. A letter given to a person in Bugiri by their LC1 to help them confirm their identity. away from several registration points, her son was finally able to intervene in 2019 to get his mother access to a national ID. Cheptoek expressed her frustration with the process, saying that “We asked her why she would refuse us to register yet we have married here and even have children who have grown up here? When we die, they won’t take us back [to Congo]. We shall be buried here.” Even for those who are eligible in principle, proving their eligibility was still a challenge. In order to prove you are “Ugandan” as defined by NIRA, individuals must provide documentary proof of their citizenship. According to NIRA, this nonspecific list could include: birth certificate, marriage certificate, academic certificates, passport, LC1 letter, religious certificate, school leaving certificate, child health card, notification of birth, letter of administrative officer, parish/sub-county chief, statutory declarations, or a certificate of citizenship issued by the National Citizenship and Immigration Board.76 For those without a birth certificate, which includes most older Ugandans, this usually meant obtaining a letter from the LC1 chairperson as well as signatures from local Internal Security Officers. While the LC1 letter is often one of the easiest documents to obtain, the ratifying signature of a security officer can be more difficult to get. “My experience was not good,” one man in Namayingo told us: How a National Security Approach to Uganda’s National Digital ID Has Led to Wholesale Exclusion of Women and Older Persons 33