I have tried to move and get the national ID, but I have failed. I am poor and cannot afford the costs of transport. Because of this, I even do not get my SAGE money despite being older than other people. When I tried to line up, people would push me away and now that they have realized how important the national ID is, they would not care about how old I am. I have travelled for two years. Other elderly are looked after by their children but for me I don’t have anyone to look after me. Difficulties registering were also common among those who were illiterate or not able to understand the registration forms, which were available only in English. One older person in Amudat recounted their efforts, saying: Firstly, I got a form to register, it costs two hundred shillings [200 UGX or $ 0.05 USD]. After I got the form, I paid someone to help me fill it because I can’t write, they made a mistake on the form, I had to buy a new form and pay another person to fill the form. After I went to the village chief [this takes 2–3 days], then to the DISO’s [District Internal Security Officer] office [this takes 2–3 days] and finally NIRA offices. There are usually long lines but that is good because the officials could not move without working on all the people. For older persons, one of the most critical pieces of information at registration is also the most difficult to supply: their exact date of birth and age. Very few people in Uganda have birth certificates or documents showing their exact date of birth; the 2014 Census suggested that fewer than 28% of the adult population currently possess a birth certificate, and UBOS reported in 2016 that only 16.6% of children under 2 and 20.8 percent of children from 2–4 had a birth certificate.71 Additionally, both birth notification and birth registration have noticeably declined over the past five years,72 with more recent figures suggesting that only 13% of children under 1 had their birth registered.72 While NIRA registration officials have been given guidance on how to estimate an individual’s age using historical events, many older persons reported that the younger officials were not familiar with local history (and often did not appear interested in achieving accuracy). An older man in northern Uganda told us: The officials ended up reducing the age because they were young and did not know some of these historical events. I was born in the year of lorikur – this was an event about a paramount chief at the time who was killed by the Pokot in an ambush while he was following cows that were raided. This event led to the naming of children at that time, ’Lorikur.’ When I told the person registering, they did not know because they were young. Another older woman indignantly reported: They refused to indicate my actual age. You would tell them your age and they refuse saying, ‘You’re not that old.’ Can you imagine they put for me 40 years on the ID yet I even have grandchildren?! The people registering were young people and they only estimated and put what they wanted. 30 Chased Away and Left to Die