Most national IDs were issued between 2004 and 2005 with a 10-year validity.

NATIONAL | Expired national identification cards will remain valid for at least another one year after the government ran behind renewal schedule.

Most national IDs were issued between 2004 and 2005 with a 10-year validity.

However, the government has been tinkering with contractors to carry out the production of new national IDs and it now appears like many Ugandans will be carrying around expired identification documents by the time the contractors get to work.

The State Minister for Internal Affairs, Gen David Muhoozi, told the Committee of Defence in Parliament that government is behind schedule to process the new IDs.

Last week, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) said at least 15.8 million IDs are expected to expire by August next year.

In May, Minister Muhoozi said registration for mass issuance of IDs to new citizens as well as the renewal exercise was to start on June 1 and run up to September 30, 2025.

But the mass enrollment exercise was pushed back by a month before appearing to go into an indefinite wait with NIRA executive director Rose Kisembo saying the exercise had to be postponed due to unforeseen circumstances.

"The mass enrollment and renewal exercise was set to start on June, 1, 2024 but due to unforeseen delays in the procurement process, the exercise didn't take off. Nevertheless, by the end of July, 2024, the exercise will commence," Kisembo said in June.

Further postponement followed in July with Internal Affairs ministry later announcing that citizens with expired national IDs will still be able to use them to travel across East Africa using the documents.

The ministry spokesperson, Mr Simon Mundeye, said the national identification number (NIN) on the cards do not expire and that they are the most important features of the IDs.

The new documents will have upgraded features including the iris among others.