Kampala — Legislators were yesterday dismayed by the increasing number of non-Ugandans who obtain Ugandan passports.

They quizzed the internal affairs permanent secretary, Stephen Kagoda and his technical team on how passports leak.

Kagoda and his team, on Wednesday, appeared before the parliamentary defence committee to discuss the Uganda citizenship and immigration control amendment Bill, 2008.

Hussein Kyanjo (Makindye West), said that when he recently went to Boston, he was shocked to find that 23 non-Ugandans posses Ugandan passports. "Nine were Rwandese, eight from Burundi while others were from as far as South Africa and Chad." Kyanjo wanted to know how these passports leak yet genuine Ugandans take ages to get them.

Kyanjo said there was need to tighten the screws so that immigration staff carry out extensive investigation on people before they are issued with passports.

Other MPs had expressed concern over congestion at the Internal Affairs ministry but Nicholas Ongodia, the commissioner citizenship and passport control said they are overwhelmed by the applications.

"There could be delays but we have doubled our work because we issue between 300 and 400 passports daily." he stated.

Ongadia blamed local council officials for recommending non-citizens. He said the passport control officer cannot verify whether a local council stamp or that of the Resident District Commissioner is forged.

"We have tried to reduce the congestion by decentralising our work at regional offices in Arua, Gulu, Fort Portal, Lira and Mbarara but still people come to Kampala.

The Internal affairs permanent secretary Stephen Kagoda said that the only was Uganda can know its citizens is to have national identity cards.

Kagoda appealed to Parliament to support the National Identification programme, saying they have the capacity but lack resources.