Several older persons showed us various identity documents that revealed the errors on their national ID. One older woman in Busia showed us her Voter ID Card, which said that she was born in 1926, as well as her national ID, which indicated that she was born in 1942. She appealed to her local Community Development Officer, but even with his help she was told that to correct the error she must first get an LC1 letter, go to court to obtain an affidavit, and then visit the NIRA offices in Kampala. She has been unable to complete the process thus far. Many parish chiefs confirmed to us that age was one of the most troublesome issues for older persons and reported that there were many in their local communities whose national IDs had included errors. Alongside age verification, an issue that emerged in almost every focus group we conducted was problems registering fingerprints. “Here, women harvest tolkos [Aloe Vera] and sell it,” one woman in Amudat told us, “so our hands are rough and prints cannot be got. Others cut trees, sell charcoal Figure 6. An example of a National ID and Voter's ID for the same person, so the machines during registration showing different birth dates. did not recognize our prints.” Some reported that officials told them to scrape their hands on stones, avoid applying any kind of oil or salve, or simply return the next day and try their luck with the machines again. When one old woman from Kayunga was unable to verify her fingerprints, she was told to step aside while the registration officers worked on other people. She was left sitting there all day. “I spent an entire day there, hungry,” she told us. One MP raising the issue in Parliament said: We have people who do not have the print. In Luganda, we can call it “Njola.” Someone goes there with a thumb, most especially old people, they try to capture it and it cannot be captured. I have seen them being chased. One time, I witnessed an old man being told to go and look for spirit, clean the place [his fingerprint] and come back. It was not even provided there but they told the old man to go away.74 Fingerprints were not the only biometric information that was sometimes difficult to obtain, as Joyce’s experience shows, where her digital picture was not able to be captured by the machines. Another man reported that he was told to go and change his clothing so that the computer could clearly recognize his facial features. These tricks were not always enough to appease the computers, which maintained the power to accept or refuse How a National Security Approach to Uganda’s National Digital ID Has Led to Wholesale Exclusion of Women and Older Persons 31

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