STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY constitutional amendments. A period of residence in Uganda as a child (or a student) also does not count towards the 20 year period required for an individual to apply for registration as a citizen in their own right.287 The Maragoli community in Kiryandongo The Maragoli community is a branch of the Luhya ethnic group that is mainly found in Kenya. Maragoli history records that some members of the community were present in Uganda from the 19th century or earlier; others arrived in the early 20th century as construction workers on the East African railway, and in 1957 the Omukama of Bunyoro (the king of the Bunyoro community) invited other members of the group to settle in his lands in western Uganda.288 The Maragoli themselves estimate that there may be around 18,000 people within their community in Uganda, though there is no systematic survey.289 The Maragoli were not included in the list of “indigenous communities” of Uganda in the third schedule to the 1995 Constitution, for which citizenship was attributed based on birth in Uganda; nor were they added by the amendments to the list made in 2005. Nonetheless, they have been treated as Ugandan for other purposes, and have always been registered to vote in elections. The Maragoli have made various attempts over the years to make the case for their own inclusion in that list, in part to secure their claims to the land allocated to them by the Omukama, but the question has assumed renewed urgency with the adoption of a new national identity card. Most Maragoli registered as members of the Bunyoro community on the grounds of their welcome from the Bunyoro kingdom, but they were rather offered citizenship by registration during the mass registration process.290 However, they insisted that this solution was not suitable, since they should qualify as an indigenous community in their own right and should not be required to “renounce” the citizenship of another country whose citizenship they have never in fact held. In May 2015, representatives of the community appeared to present their case before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of the Ugandan Parliament, which was at that time considering a constitutional amendment bill. The committee recommended that a constitution review commission be established to deal with this and other matters outside the scope of that bill.291 In February 2016, the Solicitor General advised NIRA that the Maragoli should be issued with ID cards, since they had already applied and been registered “pending the constitutional amendment for inclusion of the Maragoli as one of the indigenous communities”; this was supported by the Attorney General in December of the same year. Already some were being turned away from hospitals for lack of national ID; there were grave concerns at exclusion from other services, including access to government scholarships for higher education, and financial services. Without a parent with an ID, it may not be possible to register the birth of a child, in turn threatening that child’s access even to primary and secondary school. Others were threatened with the loss of positions in government employment, including as teachers and other key workers. Despite official commitments to resolve their situation, many had yet to receive ID cards by 2018.292 287 Uganda Citizenship and Immigration Control Act, 1999, Sections 12(b), 14, 15 and 25. 288 A.N. Ligale, “Some factors influencing the pattern of rural settlement in Maragoli, Western Kenya”, East African Geographical Review, Issue 4, April 1966, pp. 65-68; Letter dated 27 July 2012 from the Office of the Omukama headed “Recognition of Maragoli community of Kigumba, in Kiryandongo in Bunyoro-Kitara” (included within the Petition dated 29 July 2014 from the Maragoli Community to the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, available at: http://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/petition-to-parliament-ofuganda-and-history-of-maragoli-community-in-uganda/). 289 Interview, Maragoli representative, Kigumba, 5 August 2016. 290 Brief to Parliament on the On-Going Mass Registration of Citizens Exercise under the National Security Information System (NSIS) Project, by The Hon. Minister of Internal Affairs, 29th July 2014. This is a very significant distinction, since in Uganda citizenship by registration or naturalisation is not transmissible on the basis of descent to the next generation. See Chapter 3 above. 291 Letter dated 22 December 2015 from the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament to the Attorney General (included within compilation of documents related to the Maragoli Petition to the Attorney-General of Uganda, originally filed 10 August 2015, available at: http://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/petition-to-attorney-general-of-uganda/). 292 Letter dated 9 February 2016 from the Solicitor General, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to the Director of the National Identity and Registration Authority, Kampala; Letter dated 12 December 2016 from the Attorney General, Ministry of UNHCR / September 2018 69