By Mulengera Reporters
This Friday, a delegation of officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the Directorate of Citizenship & Immigration Control (DCIC) was in Parliament to interface with the Muwanga Kivumbi-led Public Accounts Committee (PAC). It didn’t go well.
MPs were up in arms demanding to know why refugees from Eritrea, South Sudan, DR Congo and other destinations were being allowed to freely engage in all manner of economic activities yet the available opportunities aren’t even adequate for Ugandans themselves. Because it enables its President to remain relevant to Western powers, Uganda is currently home to more than 1.8m refugees and the government policy allows them to own property and fully participate in all activities including trading and commerce.
Quite predictably, Ugandans have lately been uneasy seeing refugees become so hardworking and outcompeting them in many informal sector jobs in Kampala neighbourhoods like Kisenyi, Kabalagala and parts of Muyenga etc. As PAC chairman, Muwanga Kivumbi used the Friday session to make reference to all these grievances by citizens and demanded that the MIA officials explain what they intend to do to address such citizen concerns.
The MIA officials, who included DCIC’s Director or Head Gen Apollo Goa Kasiita, made it clear there was nothing the GoU could legally do to diminish the refugees’ competitiveness, innovativeness and hard work. They said they are all here legally and their participation in such economic activities is lawful and well provided for.
It was advised that the best Ugandans can do is to do even better and deny such foreigners chance to outcompete them while marketing their goods and services. The MPs were unsatisfied and rejected Goa’s explanation that refugees and other foreigners are free to competitively participate in all the economic activities of Uganda provided one has a valid work permit. The fire-spitting legislators made it clear that more than 5,000 such refugees who are participating in all manner of economic activities are actually doing so without valid work permits.
Saying that having a valid work permit is a mandatory requirement under the law, Asuman Basalirwa (Bugiri Municipality) claimed that he has it on good authority that more that 85% of refugees currently involved in economic activities don’t have valid work permits the same having expired long ago. He castigated the DCIC bosses for sleeping on the job while Ugandans get deprived by such refugees whose pampering has caused critics to become even angrier at Gen YK Museveni.
