By John V Sserwaniko
Having been intrigued by contents of an intelligence report, written by intelligence services, that he received as recent as last week, President Museveni (aka Ssabalwanyi) is clearly itching for a fight with UNHCR and inevitably the entire UN system in Uganda. The war concerns UNHCR’s curious determination to hide behind the ongoing verification, aimed at establishing the number of refugees in Uganda, to clandestinely carry out registration and come up with their own refugee register. This will be contrary to the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (Article 189(1) Schedule Six) that gives that mandate to nobody else but the government of Uganda.
THE GENESIS
It all began with the 26th February letter in which UN Country Coordinator Rosa Malango wrote claiming the Ugandan refugee officials in the OPM were acting corruptly by inflating refugee numbers and eventually the foods logs to unjustly enrich themselves. Besides personalizing land meant for refugee settlements, Malango also said the Ugandan officials had improperly interfered with the election of refugee leaders in the different refugee settlements. She also accused the OPM officials of misappropriating study opportunities meant for refugees under the refugee scholarship fund which actually is autonomously and independently managed by internal NGO called Window Trust. This NGO is contracted by the UNHCR and not the OPM. She didn’t hint at any possible connivance creating doubts as to how Ugandan officials would manipulate the scholarship scheme which is clearly in the hands of Window Trust. Reliable State House sources say that , having read the intelligence brief and fully acquainted himself with the history of refugee management in Uganda, Museveni now furiously regrets the haste with which Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda acted sanctioning a very embarrassing inquiry without subjecting Malango’s allegations to sufficient administrative scrutiny. This is so because many of the allegations the diplomatic babe from Guinnea raised are contradictory and can’t stand any scrutiny. Museveni, as advised by intelligence, is for instance wondering how Ugandan officials who don’t participate in implementation (i.e. giving out food & other relief items to refugees) could benefit from inflated refugee figures. The President of the view that Rugunda should have raised more questions before hurrying to sanction an inquiry that has since attracted negative local and global publicity for Uganda.
ONEK IN PROBLEMS:
On refreshing his mind about the history of refugee management in Uganda, the President also recalled the circumstances under which the registration, control and ownership of refugee data or records was removed from UNHCR in 2013. The background to this was that UNHCR had inadvertently frustrated criminal investigations by security agencies into the July 2010 terrorist bombings in Uganda. At some point, it emerged some of the terrorists had disguised their identity as refugees living in Uganda. They had actually been inadvertently registered by the UNHCR as refugees not knowing their actual intention was to plan and execute terrorism mission. That was bad but it was even worse when security agencies demanded access to their refugee registration data to aid investigations and the UNHCR officials legalistically dragged their feet and thereby frustrating investigations. The government of Uganda was furious about this very frustrating experience and Hillary Onek, who is still line Minister for refugees and disaster preparedness, was prompted to write a furious letter dated 20th December 2013 directing UNHCR to surrender refugee registration processes. Now the President, who last week specifically registered his concerns with Premier Rugunda, wonders what has changed for the refugee line ministers to acquiesce to a situation that will result into UNHCR repossessing the function of refugee registration and custody of the register and other details.
M7 DIRECTIVE:
Last Wednesday, Rugunda called a meeting of the Under Secretaries, the PS and other OPM officials concerned with refugees and told them the President isn’t happy. He told them the H/E had tasked him to become more proactive to ensure the UNHCR doesn’t hide behind the verification exercise to once again hijack refugee registration and custody of the register from the GoU. UNHCR officials argue that having control of the registration makes their fundraising work easier because it’s them who interface with donors to secure funding to fund refugee programs. Rugunda was reportedly embarrassed when the President asked him about the MoU between the GoU and UNHCR showing the parameters and red lines that shouldn’t be crossed during the verification exercise and he had none. He indeed told the Wednesday meeting (that was preceded by another on Tuesday attended by representatives from NIRA, NITA, ISO, CMI and Foreign Affairs Ministry) that the MoU should be entered immediately so that he has something to report to the H/E for his input and advice. Reliable sources say that this MoU became necessary after intelligence reports indicated to the President that the UNHCR was hiding behind verification to do many other things clearly exceeding the permission Rugunda gave them while ordering for verification. Having got embarrassed from Orunchinga refugee settlement, where the number of refugees turned out much higher than the OPM staff had reported, UNHCR has resorted to dismantling the GoU registration system and replacing it with theirs which is now in place there as verification simultaneously expands to other refugee settlements across Uganda. Malango’s original complaint was that the OPM staff had inflated the refugee figure by operating a register with a higher number of refugees than is actually available on the ground. Orunchinga experience has showed this isn’t the case. Instead the OPM staff should be tasked to account for underreporting (deflating) as opposed to over reporting (inflating) refugee figures. Orunchinga is in Isingiro and security services are uncomfortable as to why UNHCR, which is hostile to the involvement of GoU representatives, has dismantled the GoU refugee registration system there. The president’s directive is to the effect that Rugunda must act very fast to ensure UNHCR doesn’t repeat the same with other refugee settlements. In what intelligence considers a direct attack on Uganda’s sovereignty, UNHCR has also emailed the OPM officials demanding for data on refugee cases that were closed, those on hold and those that are inactive. One wonders what these new demands have to do with verification of the refugee population that was aimed at establishing the extent to which GoU/OPM had exaggerated refugee numbers.
NEW BORN BABIES:
Closed cases relate to refugees who don’t appear on the food statistics because they have died, left the system; have either got married and integrated here or have moved to a 3rd country. Its only active refugees and asylum seekers that are entitled to food rations which UNHCR initially accused the OPM of inflating for self-enrichment. The GoU is also nervously concerned as to why UNHCR teams are also using the verification exercise to register new born babies and new arrivals and proceed to add them on the register without seeking consent of the GoU. They are also issuing attestation documents to refugees which is clear distortion and not their mandate under Rugunda’s verification directive. UNHCR has also demanded for finger prints and refugee photographs which have nothing to do with verification. Strangely some political leaders at OPM are determined to antagonize the President by supporting these demands as made by UNHCR Country representative Bornwell Kantande in his numerous communications to OPM officials. Intelligence services have advised the President to act early and resist UNHCR plans to suspend the GoU refugee registration system and replace it with theirs immediately the verification exercise is completed at every settlement. This will be subversive to Uganda’s sovereignty because the servers on which UNHCR intends to keep the data are in Geneva whereby GoU will have no control or even ready access anymore. For being complicit in this conspiracy against their own country, intelligence sources say, some political leaders at OPM could lose their positions in the upcoming reshuffle.
UNHCR/WFP SUMMONED:
Acting on the President’s prompting, Rugunda has this Tuesday morning called a crisis meeting with UNHCR and WFP representatives to hammer out a new consensus clearly defining the dos and don’ts during the verification exercise. In today’s meeting, the OPM will directly raise all the above concerns (as captured in the intelligence briefs to the President) and call the UN agencies to order. “It will all depend on their attitude in this meeting. If they are okay and undertake to stop interfering with Uganda’s sovereignty that will be the end of story. But if they try bullying tactics, the President will have to come in and meet them himself and read to them the Riot Act,” said an intelligence source adding that Museveni is a firm Pan-Africanist who can’t tolerate breaches to his country’s sovereignty. However, as Museveni’s decision is awaited, intelligence is concerned about saboteurs in the OPM including a top official who last Friday clandestinely met the UNHCR and WFP officials and leaked to them everything regarding the GoU reservations with their ongoing verification exercise. “This is betrayal similar to what has caused problems for people at Police. Why should you disclose to them such confidential information? So that they prepare to come and confuse the President while covering up their actual intentions? This creeping espionage within the OPM must be decisively dealt with,” vowed a security official deployed to spy on the refugee verification exercise. It’s revealed that this implicated OPM official met the two UN Agency representatives without the consent of PS Guwatudde or even Onek and Musa Ecweru who are the ministers concerned. The official also sidelined Gerald Menhya the acting Commissioner in charge of refugees from that Friday meeting. From the UN agencies, the very improper Friday meeting was attended by Andrew Hopkins, Mamadou Cissokho and David Birt. The President was also furious that in the ongoing verification exercise, UNHCR had excluded Uganda government representatives. This is why Rugunda ordered NIRA and NITA plus security agencies to immediately deploy and participate in the countrywide exercise. Motivated by sovereignty concerns the President, as dully advised by security agencies, is inquisitive as to why UNHCR which originally said verification would take three months is now looking towards making it a permanent exercise with some officials saying at earliest, verification could end in October 2018. The country’s Chief Executive, who is expected to meet UNHCR officials and directly register his concerns, is wondering why UNHCR would need so much time for verification after earmarking $11m to remunerate and accommodate hundreds of volunteers and top earning experts the lowest of whom earns Shs30m per month. The experts are wastefully being housed at a flat in Kololo from where they are advising on the verification process.
THE CONTEXT; THE BIGGER PICTURE:
And lately the issue of refugees (for which President Museveni has attracted kudos from world leaders going by the enthusiasm the refugee solidarity conference at Munyonyo created last year) has become very serious priority for Uganda as a country. The latest OPM figures show that, as of January 2018, over 1.4m refugees lived in Uganda compared to a mere 433,595 refugees we had as of February 2015. This is reflective of an increase of 225% in just 3 years. This briefly is how it has been growing; as of January 2016 it grew to 433,595; to 982,716 as of December 2016 and eventually to 1,395,145 as of December 2017. And as of January 2018, the number had exponentially grown to 1,411,794. These are mostly Somalis, Rwandese, Congolese, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Sudanese, South Sudanese and Pakistanis. All the applicable laws in Uganda (namely the Constitution Article 187 (1) 6th Schedule & the Refugee Act 2006) mandate the GoU, through the Department of Refugees in the OPM, to handle the registration and profiling of all refugees residing in Uganda. Overtime the refugee registration processes have evolved into the usage of IT applications technology known as the Refugee Information Management System (RIMS). RIMS was launched in April 2015 by Onek as a mechanism to enhance government control and ownership of refugee registration processes and data. At the time UN Country Coordinator Rosa Malango blew the whistle and sparked off the current crisis, the GoU was seeking $4m to enhance and upgrade the RIMS system. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
CONFIDENTIAL REPORT HIGHLIGHTSThis news website has also had the opportunity to peruse one of the confidential GoU dossiers on the matter of UNCHR trying to hijack refugee registration and sideline the GoU, something that directly threatens Uganda’s sovereignty and thereby attracting the furious attention of the president. Below are some of the relevant extracts from the dossier:
VERBATTIM:
Following the Allegations from the whistle blowers that Government officials had inflated refugee numbers, manipulated food logs to steal refugee food and relief items among others, the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister guided that a re-verification exercise should be conducted using UNHCR registration tools to verify all registered refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda and substantiate the raised allegations.
What has been observed is that the original intention & purpose of the re-verification exercise meant to ascertain the actual number of right beneficiaries has turned to be fresh registration and taking over the Registration function from government according to the field observations by staff.
Roll-out will commence 12th March to all refugee settlements and urban refugee in Kampala. Issuance of ration cards for food and biometric identification will be used to provide assistance.
UNHCR is also separating and merging of families, activation of those who missed VPE in Orunchinga settlement. As a result each family/individual is being given a new Household number, case number and different unique number from the one issued by the Government of Uganda.
As per the proposal, plans to issue Refugee IDs, different from those generated by the Government of Uganda and recognized by UCC, NIRA and other Service providers (Telecom companies, Banks) has to be in accordance with the Law.
As per the proposal, the existing Government Registration system (RIMS) will be suspended in every settlement where they finish verification and UNHCR Tools will remain behind handling the registration of new arrivals, case management, Assistance and emergency operations. Therefore the future of the Government System is not clarified. A case for this is being pursued.
Integration of systems NIRA-RIMs is critical. The system being used should be hosted in Uganda for easy access so that nationals are not captured on the RIMS and likewise, the Refugees not being captured on NIRA data base.
Registration of asylum seekers and refugees is a mandate of Government according to the law and if any agency is to undertake registration of refugees and asylum seekers, regulatory and mitigation mechanisms have to be put in place in accordance with the governing Law.
With the UNHCR registration database going to be hosted in Geneva issues of: Accessibility, control, data interface and Management need to be clarified further: considering that data will be controlled from different servers not accessible, controlled and managed by Government.
This exercise should be strictly a re-verification exercise and NOT a fresh registration with the purpose of ascertaining the actual refugees in order to restore the confidence of our Partners in the Government system as per the Directive of the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister.
The proposed re-verification exercise should be time bound and jointly conducted by OPM and UNHCR, using the latter’s tools.
The report generated should be technically analyzed against the government RIMS data by independent data analysts who should be able to produce credible findings (establishing whether the numbers are inflated or not as per the raised allegations).
The verification exercise should have clear ToRs detailed in a memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Uganda and UNHCR
The MoU should detail the aspects of storage, backup and ownership; access; handover plan; sustainability; the interface with RIMS and the NIRA; among others.
The government function of registration using RIMS of new arrivals or adding new born babies or separating or adding family members should continue as the verification goes on.
There should be independent third-party monitors other than OPM and UNHCR during the verification exercise.
The Participation/involvement of NIRA and Security Agencies that form the REC is critical in line with Section 11 of the Act. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
