Uganda: More Dads Ask to Change Passport Details After DNA Reveals Children Are Not Theirs, Says Ministry

Wutthichai Charoenburi / Flickr
A pregnancy test (file photo).
27 June 2023
Nile Post (Kampala)
By Kenneth Kazibwe

The number of men seeking to have their passport details changed has increased after many of them doing Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) tests which reveal that they are not the fathers of children indicated in their passports, the Internal Affairs Ministry has said.

"We have received at least 35 men who are requesting to expunge their details from our passport system. These Ugandans originally applied for passports and came with their families including wives and children with details of mother and father indicated in the system. However, along the way, they carried out DNA test and they realised the indicated in the passport details don't belong to them," Mundeyi said.

"They have now opened war on passport details that they want to delete their names from the system indicating they are parents. There are also several callers every day to the passport office with similar requests asking whether it is possible to remove some information from their passport details."

The Internal Affairs spokesperson however says people with these requests can only be helped out by NIRA which he said is the primary source of data indicated in the passports system.

"I want to advise those men to begin with NIRA , may be with DNA results and they(NIRA) will be able to change those details and after that you will head to the passport office to have them changed. However, we shall not change the details as passport office without having gone through NIRA which is the holder of the primary data."

The development comes against a backdrop of reports that the number of men seeking DNA services to ascertain the paternity of their children has shot up.

The Internal Affairs Ministry early this month said the number of men seeking DNA services has shot up by 70%.

Recently a popular Kampala businessman was shocked to learn through DNA that a number of children he was looking after were not his.

Kampala lawyer, Male Mabirizi recently secured a court order to have a DNA test carried out on all his siblings as part of efforts to settle a family dispute over his late dad's estate.

Read the original article on Nile Post.

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