Uganda mandates national ID for valid marriages

Ugandans without the National Identification Number (NIN) will not be able to enter valid marriages.

The Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), the government agency responsible for civil registrations, issued the notice of mandatory requirement in early August to places of worship and other stakeholders licensed to sanctify marriages on behalf of the government.

Mr Denis Nabende, the URSB public relations manager, confirmed the development. He said all marriages, including customary, church, and civil, would now require one to have a national ID.

NIN is a set of numbers assigned to an individual upon successful enrolment by the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA). It is an 11-number unique identifier assigned to an individual.

“Before, churches would not require any IDs. For instance, if one wanted to get married, maybe in the Catholic Church, one would present a baptism card. Nowadays, that baptism card cannot be your ID because there would be no proof of the person presenting it,” he said.

“We need to know who is actually getting married to be able to list it in the National Marriage Register. So, once you give that name, we're able to register in the National Marriage Register … we are the ones that require that national ID,” he added.

However, by press time, there were no specifics about the implementation of the new requirement, including when it would take effect.

Nonetheless, the Uganda Catholic Secretariat in an August 28 letter, to its churches, wrote: “We have received communication from the URSB regarding the current essential requirements for solemnising a valid church marriage…we request you to have this information disseminated to the respective parishes in order for us to comply with the existing Civil Law requirements as we prepare couples for holy matrimony.”

Msgr John B Kauta, the secretary general at the Catholic Secretariat, told this publication that the letter is simply to comply with the laws, and not an initiation of the Church.

“They want those who are going to get married to be prepared for the need to have their marriages and their national IDs recorded. So it is not a big deal, it is just the law of Uganda … we are just following what we have been told to do,” he said.

Marriages entered before the new requirement takes effect remain valid, with the possibility that the couples would be required to in future submit their ID particulars.

Mr Nabende, told this publication on October 1 that the development seeks to make the marriage register more credible, and in line with legal requirements.

“It's actually an easy process because all you do is, besides the documents you are presenting, you must just add a copy of your national ID. So, when they send us a record, we also input that national ID on the register,” he said.

The Registration of Persons Act as amended transferred the functions of registering marriages from URSB to NIRA; the body that also issues IDs. The transition is not yet in effect but the new development will be among those adopted by NIRA when they eventually assume the functions.

The news, however, has raised mixed reactions, with the concern that this will lock out many who want to enter marriages but do not have the identification document.

The Provincial Secretary of the Church of Uganda, Mr Balaam Muheebwa, said they had not yet received the communication from the government.

“I saw the letter from the Catholic Church talking about it, so I am assuming ours will come or if it came, maybe I haven't seen it…I need to look at it and we understand the content and then we see how to comply. This is a law, we may not have much to do. However, if we have an area where we can give feedback to the State, then we can look at it and see if we can give proposals” he said.

“We have cases where people have no IDs. Our church gets a lot of applications for weddings in December for immigrants who live abroad. I don't know how they have advised us on the way forward. I want to find out if there are options. These are the questions we want to understand. Are there options? Or can we have a discussion with the URSB and see how we would handle the cases?” he added.

Ms Pheona Nabasa Wall, a lawyer and former president of the Uganda Law Society, said the new requirement would go a long way in addressing cases of identity theft and easing the implementation of laws.

“In Uganda now, the most recognised form of identification is the national ID. Originally, they still required identification from your LC1… the issue of citizenship is important because a marriage can confer on you citizenship rights, some benefits, residency benefits and things like that,” she said.