operation 2014–15, in what Mühlbauer would later claim was a ‘world record’ in national identification systems.164 At that time, no law or announcement had been gazetted, but delegates of the NSIS project maintained that they were acting under the general powers of the Constitution, which places a duty on the Government to register citizens.165 2. Legality at last: The Registration of Persons Act of 2015 (ROPA) Notwithstanding the constitutional references, the NSIS project continued without a basis in law until the Registration of Persons Act (ROPA) was passed in March of 2015. At this point over 16.5 million Ugandans had already surrendered reams of personal data during the first mass registration drive. When the Registration of Persons Bill was laid in Parliament, it was General Aronda who presented it as a fundamentally important project for the national security of Uganda, emphasizing that it would “serve as the distinguishing feature for the general population from illegal residence” and that it had both surveillance and authorization components. He also cited as central benefits of the system: aid in the fight against terrorism; the need to address rampant crime, including theft, illegal employment and ghost workers; and attracting private investment to Uganda.166 ROPA did much more than codify the ongoing NSIS project, it dramatically expanded the reach of the national ID project in three significant ways. First, it replaced the inter-ministerial NSIS team with a permanent institution—the National Identification and Registration Administration (NIRA)—that would fall under the authority of the Minister of Internal Affairs. NIRA was to have its own Board of Directors, with representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Electoral Commission, the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control, the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, the National Information Technology Authority–Uganda, and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. There would further be a chairperson and two persons to represent the public, as well as the Executive of NIRA as a non-voting member.167 Second, it not only gave NIRA authority over national ID card registration, issuance, and maintenance, it also transferred critical components of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS)—including birth, adoption, and death registration– to NIRA (and thus to the Ministry of Internal Affairs). These activities had previously been the responsibility of the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB). ROPA further established that it would be NIRA’s identification database that would serve as the basis for establishing the electoral register, or list of eligible voters, formerly the responsibility of the Electoral Commission (EC), and that NIRA would be responsible for determining who was a bona fide citizen of Uganda, formerly the responsibility of the National Citizenship and Immigration Board (NCIB). Both the EC and the NCIB were constituted by the 1995 Ugandan Constitution. The third major innovation of ROPA was that it created a legal infrastructure for the national identity system that would make registration compulsory.168 It would also make the national ID card a mandatory requirement for accessing both public and private services in Uganda; Section 66 says that any Ministry, Department or Agency of Government or any other institution providing a public service shall require a person accessing the services to provide a National Identification Number (NIN) or a National Identity Card (NIC).169 While the Constitution confers the responsibility of registering individuals on the 66 Chased Away and Left to Die