Ugandan citizens abroad seek to return home
Author: Ivan Bwowe. PHOTO/FILE
As a measure of controlling the spread of Covid-19, on March 21, President Museveni ordered the closure of Entebbe Airport. This left many people abroad or in transit stranded as Covid-19 disrupted the aviation industry.
The presidential directive was codified into The Public Health (Prohibition of Entry into Uganda) Order 2020.
The restrictions found me in Reykjavik, Iceland. I was meant to return home on May 26 after graduating with a post-graduate diploma in International Gender and Equality Studies at the University of Iceland.
The ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a circular for Ugandans stranded abroad to register with their respective embassies with hope of repatriation as a result of public outcry as other countries like Kenya, South Africa, Malawi, etc, continued to repatriate their citizens.
Questions have lingered in my mind. What is the value of my Ugandan citizenship? Is the Ugandan government leaving up to the values or standards recognised world over established by citizen/State relationship? Am I valued as a citizen? When will I be “authorised” or allowed to return home?
As the uncertainty continues, the selective application of rules makes it even worse, when a few privileged Ugandans were permitted to return. This is a shame as more than 2,400 Ugandans are stranded abroad some in dire situations without money, not working, accumulating bills.
The President in an interview with NBS TV aired on May 11, said Ugandans stranded abroad who want to return home are “idiots,” implying that we should stay where we are. Mr President, we are not idiots as Uganda is our home.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been promising to work on repatriation of Ugandans yet there is no slight indication of a time frame. There seems to be no urgency to help Ugandans stranded abroad. Closing borders to citizens is absurd. We want to return to Uganda, not because it is paradise, but because it is home.
Is prohibiting the entry of Ugandan citizens legal? Article 29(2) (b) of the Constitution states that every Ugandan shall have a right to enter, leave and return to Uganda. The Public Health (Prohibition of Entry into Uganda) Order 2020 was made under Section 36(1) of the Public Health Act Cap 281 of 1935.
Section 36(1) empower the minister, for purposes of preventing the introduction of an infectious disease into Uganda, to regulate, restrict or prohibit entry into Uganda of any person, persons, animal, article, or thing into Uganda.
This Act came into force way before the promulgation of the1995 Constitution. Extending section of 36(1) to Uganda citizens, by prohibiting entry or closure of borders to Ugandan citizens contravenes Article 29(2)(b) of the Constitution.
Article 2 of the Constitution states that the Constitution is binding on all authorities and any law and custom inconsistent with any of the provisions of the Constitution is void to the extent of the inconsistency. This does not spare the Public Health (Prohibition of Entry into Uganda) Order 2020 prohibiting entry of citizens.
Following the wisdom in Johannesburg City Council vs Chesterfield House (Pty) Ltd, 1952 (3) SA 809 (AD) of separating the good from bad in a statute, Section 36 of the Public Health Act is not bad, but the order that extends prohibition of entry into Uganda to Ugandans is obnoxious.
Therefore, the Minister of Health should make regulations to include pre-departure Covid testing guidelines and rules on quarantine or isolation.
We want to return home.
Mr Bwowe is a Research Fellow (The Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies)
