A TIMELINE OF THE UGANDAN NATIONAL ID PROJECT DATE EVENT 1995 Ugandan Constitution comes into force, establishing the National Citizenship and Immigration Board (NCIB) with the responsibility to register and issue national identity cards to all citizens and identity cards to all aliens (Article 16). The government begins exploring the possibility of establishing a national ID project. 2000 July 7: Treaty establishing the East African Community enters into force, which calls on State Parties under Article 104 to maintain “common standard travel documents for their citizens.” 2002 EAC deadline for establishing a national ID for Uganda and Tanzania passes, with little evidence of progress. 2006 Government of Uganda contracts with South African company Face Technologies to deliver the national ID, but the project is mired in corruption and scandal, and never gets off the ground. 2010 February 13: President Yoweri Museveni directs the Minister of Internal Affairs to fast track the National Security and Information Systems (NSIS) project to produce a national ID ahead of the 2011 elections. March 19: Government of Uganda signs a contract with Mühlbauer ID Services GmbH, a German company, for 64 million euros. June 16: The Cabinet approves phase I of the Expanding Social Protection programme, including the Senior Citizens’ Grant (SCG), with support from DFID, Irish Aid, and UNICEF. 2011 May 21: President Museveni receives the first National ID Card. September 2: The first beneficiaries of the SCG receive their money. 2012 May 10: The Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs finds that in the NSIS project there has been “outright breach of the procurement laws, dishonesty on the part of some senior officials, both political and technical, whose roles are highly questionable.” 2013 May 13: General Aronda Nyakairima becomes Minister of Internal Affairs and assumes control of the NSIS Project. November 25: Official launch of the mass enrolment exercise in Kampala. December 2: President Museveni (re)launches the national ID. 2014 April: Mass registration for the national ID project begins. December: Registration of Persons Bill laid in Parliament for the first reading. 2015 March 23: Passage of the Registration of Persons Act of 2015. August: Government announces phased national rollout of the Senior Citizens’ Grant, with 40 new districts being added over next 5 years. 2016 February 18: Ugandans vote in General Election for President and Parliament, but the government is unable to deploy newly purchased biometric voter validation kits. 2017 May 29: NIRA attempts to launch the “Learner’s Project” to register students in primary and secondary school but runs into many obstacles with many schools opting out completely, missing millions of children. April: Government sets first deadline for SIM Card Registration Exercise. 2018 November: Government of Uganda decides to roll out the Senior Citizens’ Grant to all districts starting in FY 2019/20. December: Auditor General publishes a Value for Money Audit on Identification and Registration of Persons by NIRA. 2019 February 11: NIRA launches another three-month mass registration drive. February 18: Physical verification begins for the public pension clean-up exercise. October 1: Official launch of the national Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) rollout October: Some healthcare facilities begin requiring national IDs in order to access services; others will follow in the coming months. December 21: An audit of NIRA’s financial statements by the Auditor General finds that: “Delayed issuance of cards to the owners implies that they are not able to access a number of services that require an Identity card. It further limits the usability of data held by the NIRA by other agencies of government thereby encouraging duplication.” How a National Security Approach to Uganda’s National Digital ID Has Led to Wholesale Exclusion of Women and Older Persons 19