The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has said that the upcoming mass enrollment and renewal of national identity cards will be conducted primarily at the parish level.
Beginning May 27, 2025, millions of Ugandans will have the opportunity to either register for the first time or renew their expired national ID cards in an exercise scheduled to run from Monday to Saturday.
According to NIRA, this operation will be based at the heart of every community the parish.
“The parish (Muluka) will be the heart of operations during the mass enrollment and renewal exercise. Registration will occur at each of the 10,594 parishes in a rotational, comb-and-clean approach.
There will be a minimum of 10 kits at each parish on a day of registration. A parish may have fewer kits in unique circumstances,” said NIRA Executive Director Rosemary Kisembo on Wednesday.
Local leaders, including LC1 chairpersons, defense secretaries, and LC1 council members, will play a key role in supporting the registration process.
They will work alongside parish chiefs, Parish Internal Security Officers (PISO), and Gombolola Internal Security Officers (GISO) to identify and register citizens.
This initiative comes at a time when over 15.8 million national ID cards are due to expire by June 2025.
The mass registration exercise also aims to enroll at least 17.2 million Ugandans who are currently unregistered.
However, while most services will be decentralized to the parish level, NIRA has clarified that individuals seeking to change particulars on their national ID cards will have to visit the district offices.
“Change of particulars shall only happen at the district offices of NIRA. It shall not be conducted at the parish level. The reason for this is that it has some quite intense legal requirements that may not be easy for a new person who is just dealing with a kit to have and hold in their head,” Kisembo said.
She explained that there are nine classes of change of particulars, each with its own legal requirements, which will be made available at district offices by NIRA staff.
