Nyirira 20 years old Busia District Nyirira is 20 years old and unemployed. She has two children. Although she initially stayed in Kayunga district, she now stays at her mother-in-law’s place in Busia district. At the time that the National ID registration was happening, Nyirira was still of school age. However, she dropped out of school because she was pregnant. When she went to Busana sub county in Kayunga to register for a National ID, she was told that she was underage and couldn’t be registered. Knowing that her colleagues at school were already being registered, she did not relent – she went to the district headquarters. Her hopes would be further sunk, however, when the officials at the district headquarters requested that she pay fifty thousand Ugandan shillings [50,000 UGX] to have her registered. This was the last straw, and she gave up. The consequences of not having a National ID would later haunt her when she tried to access maternal health services at Dabani Health Centre during her second pregnancy. She recounted to us that “...the nurse asked me for a National ID and I said I didn’t have one. She [the nurse] threw the book at me and said she will not attend to me.” Nyirira was not easily deterred. “But I picked up my book and went back,” she told us, “I sat there and waited.” After noticing that she was in a lot of pain, the nurse eventually relented. Nyrira tells the story in her own words: [T]he nurse later looked at me, had mercy and accepted to attend to me. Before, I used to find younger nurses; those ones used to work on me [without asking for an ID]. But this time I found the old nurse who had refused. When you go there, she tells all of you in the maternity ward that she will work on people with National IDs first; if you don’t have, you come last – unless she just decides to help you. Nyirira is of the opinion that they should stop requiring National IDs in health facilities and adds that she fears for the health of her children. “Now what if I go there with my child, they will refuse to treat my child because I have no ID?” she asks. How a National Security Approach to Uganda’s National Digital ID Has Led to Wholesale Exclusion of Women and Older Persons 49